but we are starting to clear out. today is a transition to better day. >> better. >> transition goo worse, but now that the front is getting out of here but what i want to do is take you back in time and show you on storm scan three what went on yesterday. we were looking at yesterday at noon. we were on the air at talk philly nothing to find but as time progressed, sun was shining and steaming things up. look at these lightening strikes. we calculated thousands of lightening strikes, as those storms went through last night. here we stand at 4:00 he clock hour still lingering presip out there, no lightening strikes to be found but we're not completely out of the woods yet. it will be a matter of time but it is getting better with time and i will have bet are weather news, full details, straight ahead, ukee, back to you. now to the crisis in the middle east. smoke can be seen as war continues in gaza. the faa lifts a ban on u.s. airlines flying in and out of israel's main airport in tel aviv. >> temporary ban was put in place following a rocket strike that landed near the airport. in the meantime secretary of state john kerry reports some progress for a cease-fire for israel and hamas. don champion has the latest. >> reporter: american air liners can once again fly into tel aviv's airport after faa lifted its want on u.s. planes traveling to israel's main hub. in a statement overnight the the agency said it lifted the ban after getting new information on measures that the israeli government is taking to ensure the safety of flights in and out of the airport. the decision ban flights had been met with harsh criticism from the israeli ment. >> there is no danger in flying, it is not to stop the flights but to stop the rockets. >> reporter: ban had been in place for more than a day after hamas rocket strike in the neighborhood near the airport on tuesday. u.s. secretary of state john kerry flew back to cairo without brokering a cease-fire in the 17 day conflict between israel and palestinians. kerry and u.n. secretary general work both sides of the conflict in israel and west bank, on wednesday. >> i can tell thaw we have in the last 24 hours made some progress in moving towards that goal. >> just miles away from where peace talks were going on israeli military continued it's a salt on hamas targets, in gas a don champion for cbs-3 "eyewitness news". well, it his 33:00. time for traffic and weather together on the three's but first. >> a line of sum are storms filled with heavy rain and dark clouds blew through the area with pretty impressive lightening last night. this is eyewitness video from the bustleton section of philadelphia, an impressive display by mother nature. lets get back over to kate toy talk about those storms. >> thankfully the worst of those storms have wound down for us here, we will see it all the time in the summer where we will build up moisture content in the atmosphere, we have a clash of air masses and then we will get what happened last night a round of heavy, nasty then are storms coming through. here's storm scan three at the moment generally bulk of precipitation is out to sea or in maryland. we will get clipped by this but notice not seeing any lightening strikes here over the last couple of hours. things are starting to sort of just quiet down in the atmosphere. we will look a little bit wider on the zoom, back towards pittsburgh, skies are beginning to clear so it is just a matter of time, before we will do the the same but we have not quite turn the page on this front and the humidity that comes witt. speaking of the lightening that we just saw, amazing video of, cloud to ground lightening if you were looking for lightening we have a good shot to find it. look at the amount of strikes. the last time we counted up lightening strikes we had just over 9,000. last night 12,300 with the tool that we have in the weather sent for count them up. i mean it was every where, we always say, if you a hear thunder head inside because you are close enough to be truck by lightening if you hear thunder. seventy-four is the the current temperature. still steamy but will get better with time in terms of the comfort level. still not the best hair morning but it will be a good hair afternoon, later on today sixty-nine in willow grove and we are seeing skies clearing out. if you want to forgo umbrella today you can getaway without that. there will be some clouds around but with time skies are clearing in the mid 80's and more sunshine as day goes on. the looks better with time, bob. good morning, everybody. 4:35. we are picking up the cones. live look here at i-95. this is that construction project that began on monday. the northbound lanes between ridley and philly international airport. it is a project that will last through december. they will repave northbound side, they will flip her around and come southbound between the girard point and ridley. only one lane opened right here and, of course, if you are watching right now and as you head northbound you will that have uneven pavement here from the stretch where they milled and is there always a cuss cloud the first 15 or 20 minutes as cars start rolling. live look here at the schuylkill expressway looking good, downtown, no problems at all in or out of the city at least for the moment. 422 and 202 in good shape working your way in towards king of prussia accident up here in the allentown area route 145 is closed right here near lehigh street. milkily road is the best bet. all bridge lease fine. the mass transit running with no delays. natasha, back over to you. more remains of victims killed in the malaysia jet liner shot down over eye rain will arrive in the netherlands today. >> two military planes carrying bodies of the 40 victims arrived for a somber ceremony, each coffin was loaded in a hearst and driven in procession. many lined around to pay their respects, some even brought flowers. british investigators will examine data from flights 17's two black boxes. officials received them on monday mid fears ukrainian rebels may have tampered with the information. although plane's voice recorders were damage specialist say they were not manipulated. happening today, a philadelphia woman found guilty but mentally ill in the murder of her own mother is scheduled for sentencing. she was convicted of shooting lolita lee inside her cobbs creek home in 2007. she then doused her mother's bod which gasoline and then set her on fire. another woman was badly burned but survived the resulting house fire. mother and daughter, critically injured in the food truck explosion in feltonville have died. explosion was caught on surveillance cameras at third and wyoming, earlier this month. forty-two year-old olga gomez, succumbed to her injuries on sunday. her daughter, jaylen landvery passed away on tuesday. family members tell us funeral services are set for friday and their bodies will be flown to guatemala for burial. eighty-nine year-old philadelphia man accused of nazi war crimes has died, johann briar died on tuesday the same day that a judge granted a request for his extradition to germany. german prosecutors hoped to try briar on charges of aiding the murder of more than 200,000 jews at the auschwitz death camp. the retired toolmaker was arrested at his northeast philadelphia home just last month. investigators say a main line mcdonald's employee was selling more than burgers while at work. fast food worker alan trammel was and reza accused of dealing crack in the parking lot. undercover officers say they arranged several deals with him that took place in the mcdonald's parking lot in radnor township. >> when he was working at the mcdonald's he would walk out parking lot at which time wow sell crack cocaine in package form to the under cover officers. one minute he is out dealing in the parking lot with the crack cocaine and then he is back in preparing food. is there the health concerns there as well. >> trammel was arraigned and now in delaware county jail. there are unsung heroes in every war. >> but now some veterans are making sure that our four legged soldiers are getting recognition that they deserve as well. military dogs do everything, from sniffing out explosive devices on the battle field to providing companionship to soldiers. supporters of the national defense authorization act of 2013, traveled to washington yesterday to encourage congress to reunite retired military war dog with the hand letters. >> sign into law, over a year ago now, but it has not been implemented in anyway. >> u.s. military keeps about 3200 dogs in combat zones, on average, 10 percent of them retire each year. the goal, it is to return the dogs to their former hand letters but sometimes it can get too extensive. is there much more to cover on cbs-3 "eyewitness news" including potential buyers for revel casino in atlantic city. phillies game had a rain delay as you know but wait until you see what happens in yankees stadium. we are back in two minutes, it looks like there are potential buyers ready to go in on the struggling revel casino. >> the the atlantic city casino goes up in sale in bankruptcy auction next month. yesterday, atlantic city's mayor says there are six buyers showing very serious interest, the the casino has declared bankruptcy twice since it opened in april 2012. industry experts think that there is potential for the future. >> you know, they have got to get the a pretty low price to be able to hope to turn a profit there but it has everything a modern casino needs in terms of amenities, it has meeting space, small areas where you can have little conferences and things like that. it is a great hotel for atlantic city and it would be a shame to lose ate the this point. >> several hundred workers from show boat are planning a rally tonight, that casino is expect to close next month. workers are hoping a buyer will step in and continue to operate show boat as a casino. in addition show boat trump plaza is expected to close in september. rain eventually washed out yankees and rangers game in insuring but take a look at the ground crew here. they had a tough time, getting the tarp down. they tried rolling it the out but the rain and wind made it almost impossible to cover the field. by the way yankees won the rain shortened game two-one. we got a little bit of that but not as bad as that at all. >> no good that was intense. >> that was pretty rain at times in some locations yesterday. i was down at the shore yesterday afternoon, all we had was wind through the afternoon and eventually some rain came in late at night. it just goes to show, what a micro climate you can have, in this area poconos totally different from the city, totally different from the shore. it really goes to show what a variety have of climatic influence we have here in our area which makes it the so interesting for somebody like me but when it comes to your forecast it can get wordy at times. i want to get you out there and show you one viewer photo that came in. this is from our wonderful weather intern jared who took a picture of one lightening strike of thousands that is came in from cherry hill, new jersey. thankfully in additional lightening showing up at the moment here locally on storm scan three but not totally out of the woods just yet. so we still have wet weather primarily back through, the d.c. area, and down through maryland, virginia, but we are probably still going to get clipped before it is all said and done and this whole thing clears out. we have generally starting to be more clearing going on back through western pennsylvania but we will get in on that with time. just a matter of it at this point. lingering shower, still damp outside and it is still steamy too but we are not anywhere near as hot this afternoon and more refreshing air mass that will take overtime. mainly clear, comfortable tonight as your low drops to 64. good excuse to forgo conditioning for yet another night. eighty-four and sunshine. talk about a gorgeous day tomorrow, pair of eight's, still a sunny sky and we are heating up. we will flirt with 90 on sunday that will be our next shot for a shower or late day storm, ukee, back over to you. in sports afternoon baseball today with cole hamels going against giants tim hudson in south philadelphia. first pitch 1:05. last night a pitcher's dual, aj burnett got help from third, he threw eight shut out innings after a 59 minute rain delay. trouble is phillies could in the score either. ninth inning and hunter pence with the bases loaded double off jonathan papelbon. phillies lose this 13-one. papelbon ace tracking attention at the trade dead line. >> unaudible. >> i don't think about it one way or the other. i have no control over it. >> we will see what happens. ryan howard hat the night off last night, the the big piece is batting just .224 this season and in the last 25 games he is hitting only .168. fans are sounding off and ryan says everybody is feeling the same way. >> a lot of frustration. there is frustration in the fans, there is frustration here. i have my own personal frustrations as well but, you know you just try to stay positive. >> rumors out there they might buy hihim out of his deal. we will see what happens. still ahead on "eyewitness news", jill wagner joins us from the new york stock exchange to get us an update on the day on wall street. >> but first a look what is coming up tonight on cbs-3. steven colbert will not only follow in david letterman's footsteps but he will be doing it on the same stage. cbs, the parent company of this station, announced colbert will keep his show in new york at the ed sullivan theater. his debut date is still up in the air. it all depend on when dave decides he is ready to sign off. lets get you up to speed with the quick look at this morning's headlines, late last night federal aviation administration lifted its ban on u.s. airlines flying in and out of israel's main airport. ban was in response to bombings near the airport in tel aviv. meanwhile secretary of state john kerry is in israel talking with israeli and palestinian leaders working towards a cease-fire. mcdonald's employee alan trammel is under arrest accused of dealing crack in the restaurant parking lot in wayne, delaware county. authorities want to make sure no food was contaminated after trammel handled the drugs. mother and daughter critically injured in the feltonville food truck explosion earlier this month had died from their injuries. eleven other people were injured in this massive explosion, police blamed a leaking propane tank. our time is now 4:50. lets get a check on business news. >> money watch's jill wagner joins us live from the new york stock exchange, good morning, jill, it is earnings season and delta says profits soared last quarter so what is behind that. >> reporter: well, good morning ukee and natasha. delta says more people are flying and unfortunately for us we are all paying more for tickets. delta is also cramming more people into each plane. now their average flight is 86 percent full, that would have seemed impossible, even a few years ago. airline also bought its own oil refinery in 2012 to help keep the cost of fuel down. ukee and natasha. personal trainers can be expensive. now there is a a new fitness ban that will whip new to shape. how about it. >> reporter: yeah, in case you are looking for motivation, you should check out the new padlock fitness bans. if you skip a work out or just not working hard enough the ban gives you a light electric shock or you get to pay other padlock users. but if you reach your goals you will get rewarded eater with money or gift card. the fitness bans cost between 150 and $230. >> boy. >> wait a minute. >> it is just a little jolt. >> that thing goes hey wire you are all over. >> all right, thanks, jill. >> appreciate it. >> coming up after a shortt break, traffic and weather together we will do it on the three's. >> stay with us, that is traffic and weather together, good morning bob kelly. >> downtown 2345 tasha brown great to have you here, limo pulled up in front of the station, i said, natasha must be with us this morning. driver has a little hat on and everything. live look at the schuylkill expressway, here in king of prussia. in problems or delays at all. little damp from all that rain, thunder boomers last night, maybe trash collection day today a box or can lid could be bounced from the rain last night but for the most part majors are in good shape. good morning to fishtown, live look i-95 coming south in the work zone no problems or delays up and down that corridor. route 145 is block at lehigh street with a crash. detour in play there this morning. crews are still out on the turnpike eastbound right here near philadelphia bensalem interchange. out and about coming into philadelphia, from say south jersey or from south philadelphia and using the the schuylkill expressway, crews will be working to day between university and south, we will take that down to within lane, and kate, boy those thunder boomers last night i had to explain to austin that was angels bowling. >> that is exactly what happened, technically speaking. >> thank you for reenforcing that. >> yeah, you know what though, at least and thankfully all those thunderstorms are out of here, bob and we are looking good. granted still some lingering showers a sprinkle here and there but worst of those storms have long since retreated and we will gradually clear out, so storm scan three is starting to clear out a little bit here. it looks better then it did yesterday evening for sure. currently we are looking at dew point is here, still somewhat high but they are slowly dropping off across our northern communities here. so with time, everybody gets in on a much more refreshing air mass, mid 80's today and tomorrow and saturday we are looking at beautiful weather here. sunday our next shot for a shower or storm makes a return, back to you. here is a look at our sister station kyw news radio 1060 is following. new simple test can be done to save lives of people with irregular heartbeats. franklin institute hosted a event dedicated, opening the earth and port richmond couple continues to fight on behalf of their 22-year old son who died of acute complications of asthma in 2012. check in two, three, four times a day, kyw news radio 1060, natasha. coming up next, an execution in air zone gets botched and it takes the inmate almost two hours to die. the details, as to why this happened coming up. story of the sick little boy in massachusetts is touching hearts of the people right here in our area. we have the story of danny snickerson, we are back at the top of the hour, good morning. the the faa ban on all u.s. flights in and out of israel has been lifted but fight against gaza rages on. we are live with the update on the crisis in the middle east. "eyewitness news" has just learn that the food truck explosion in feltonville, earlier this month has turned deadly. today is. ites wednesday, july 24th i'm ukee washington. i'm natasha brown in forker contact also this morning sum are storms leave their mark all across the region. dark clouds moved in and then came the rain and lightening. it was pretty impress turf watch the light show in the sky, i certainly thought so last night, katie. >> there were so many lightening strikes, thousands of them, once again, as we counted them all up last night but we still have a lit built of lingering wet weather to track for you and we will do just that and tell you when things clear out, coming up, bob. good morning, 5:00 o'clock straight up on a thursday morning. we are looking live at 42 freeway, we're letting dust kick up. there is still construction on i-95 plus we will check with mass transit coming up next, ukee, good morning. now to the latest on the crisis in the middle east, faa lifts a ban on airlines flying in and out of israel's main airport in tel aviv. this morning smoke continues to rise as israeli tanks and war planes pummel the gaza strip. u.s. secretary of state john kerry says there has been progress made towards a cease-fire between israel and hamas. "eyewitness news" reporter jane carabao is live at philadelphia international the airport with the details for us, jane? >> reporter: well, natasha, ukee, now that the faa has lifted this ban, the first flight leaving here for philadelphia international
but john bolton's publisher,shut to the mattresses for him. they fought tooth and nail they defied the white house bluster and threats. they fought every legal action and they got that thing out. and, you know, simon and shuster has the first amendment on their side and they were righteously and effectively standing up for the first amendment rights of themselves and their author, for sure to be honest, though, simon & shuster also knew it was really important that the bolton book hit bookstores because they knew it would sell a gajillion copies and it did the bolton book has been a huge bestseller, something like 800,000 copies in its first week that was a record for simon & shuster. until today when the same publisher just announced that mary's trump new book about her uncle, the president, her account of her life in the trump family and what she came to learn about her uncle, what she describes as his manifest unfitness for office, we learn the today her book didn't sell 800,000 copies in its first week like john bolton's did her book sold nearly 1 million copies in 1 day. sorry, mr. bolton, mary trump will have your seat now. and congratulations to simon & shuster for what is amounting to a bang-up summer for people saying absolutely horrifying things about what they know about this president from close proximity to him so as i mentioned tonight we're going to be joined here by mary trump. you should know that before she wrote this book, she was not exactly in hiding. this is obviously her debut as an internationally known person, but she has pursued a distinguished academic career including recognition as a literature student at tufts, which may explain in part why she's a notably good writer, which i think is helping sell this book. she earned her ph.d. in clinical psychology she's contributed to widely-whited book ewidely cited books in that field and been in the press in the past as a lower profile but goodstanding member of the famous trump family she was notably in the press before, in an instance where something went very, very wrong inside that family and you should know this for context. i'm going to quote this to you from an article in the "new york daily news" from december of 2000 "on june 25th, 1999, fred trump, one of the last of new york city's major post-war builders, died in a queens hospital of age 93 after suffering from al alzheimer's disease for several years. fred iii, a 38-year-old real estate broker, told the 650 mourners at marlboro collegiate church his grandfather was a generous man who show eed a responsibility for those in need he was glad he was asked to speak, an acknowledgement to his dead father, and he and his sister were family fred delivered his eulogy, his wife, lisa, sat in a front pew pregnant with her third child. that night after returning into their home in greenwich, connecticut, lisa went into labor. all seemed well at first 48 hours after baby william trump was born he turned blue in his mother's arms, his body stiffening and shaking uncontrollably it was the first of many devastating seizures to come what followed for the next harrowing six weeks of his life were brain scans, spinal taps, blood tests, and heart-wrenching visits to three different hospitals including yale medical center doctors eventually diagnosed young william with infantile spasms, a rare disorder that can lead to cerebral palsy or autism and a lifetime of care "we just don't know what william's future holds and what he'll be able to do in his life," said lisa, a full-time mom. during the baby's three-week stay at mt. sinai, robert trump called to assure his nephew that whatever the child needed would be covered by precise, the trump company medical plan around-the-clock nurses, neurologists, pulmonologists, emergency room visits, when william stopped breathing twice in the first eight mornths of hi tragic life. we were so relieved when he called, fred iii remembered. followed by a july 19th letter to a lawyer to the family insurance broker which read, quote, please instruct precise, the trump company medical plan, please instruct precise to pay 100% of all costs relating to baby william's care, notwithstanding any plan limits, percentage, number of visits or maximum dollar amount and whether or not they are deemed by precise to be medically necessary. so, the baby was born in june 1999 the day of fred trump sr.'s funeral. lisa trump goes into labor baby william trump is born june '99. the family as of june and july 1999 was explicitly and in writing promising to pay through the family business health plan 100% of all of the health care needs for this little boy in their family in the meantime, though, there was the matter of grandfather trump's will remember, he had passed away in june '99 and there ended up being a dispute in the family as to whether or not all five of his kids, including the descendants of his eldest son, freddy, who died, a dispute as to whether or not all five of fred trump's kids would receive equal shares of the grandfather's will. or would only the surviving four kids split the estate. well, donald trump, the current president, was one of the surviving four kids and from what you know about him, you can imagine how he felt about that dispute. right? if you cut out the descendants of his deceased elder brother, freddy, well, donald's sir hare the inheritance would be that much larger, split four ways instead of five. as that dispute percolated in the family, donald trump and his surviving siblings decided to pull the one nastiest little lever that they had over their deceased brother's kids. they explicitly moved to cut off the medical coverage for the little baby boy with a seizure disorder "on march 30th, fred iii received a certified letter informing him the medical benefits that had always been provided to his family by the trump organization would end lisa trump, friday iii's wife, said, quote, i burst out into tears. fred says, quote, i just think it was wrong these are not warm and fuzzy people they never even came to see william in the hospital. our family puts the fun in dysfunctional. and then there's donald trump. asked in an interview with the "daily news" whether he thought cutting this health coverage could appear coldhearted given the baby's medical condition donald told the "new york daily news" that he made no apologies. he said, quote, i can't help that george washington couldn't lie about whether or not he cut down the cherry tree. jfk had pt109. eisenhower saved the free world from the nazis all presidents have backstories. you know, what they do to get them to the white house. it's part of their lore, right part of why the country chooses them to lead for donald trump, there is that time he cut off health insurance to his baby boy nephew with a severe seizure disorder as a hardball legal tactic against his relatives so he could get his share of their money i cannot tell a lie says george washington about the cherry tree i can't help that, says donald trump about denying life-saving care to a baby so he can inherit his relative's share of his dad's money in addition to the millions of dollars he was already getting from his dad's estate so that makes news in 2000 and mary trump surfaces in that story at the time, she's a grad student and she's trying to be supportive of her brother and her brother's sick little boy and she tells the "daily news" for that story, quote, my aunt and uncles should be ashamed of themselves quot quote, i'm sure they are not when mary trump's uncle, donald, would go on to be elected president in 2016, mary trump responded online to "new york times" columnist charles blow writing online about his dismay with the election results that night. mary trump responded, quote, worst night of my life that same night legal analyst lisa bloom wrote on twitter, quote, dear world, i'm so embarrassed for my country, please do not judge us too harshly for this mary trump wrote online in response, quote, we should be judged harshly i just hope we do the work to right this horrific wrong. i grieve for our country bloom then wrote, quote, we are not moving to canada, we're staying an fighting like hill. like hillary like hell we're staying and fighting like hill for values and our country, in the courts, in the streets. mary trump wrote back to her, one word, one number, really, mary trump wrote back to her online that night, quote, 2020 period well, now it's 2020 and mary trump's new book about her family, specifically, about her uncle, sold a million copies on the first day of its release this week. and the white house did everything it could to try to stop this book from coming out, too. threatening and talking all sorts of smack the president's younger brother, mary trump's uncle, robert, miraculously sprouted the same anti-first amendment lawyer that the president has repeatedly used to try to stop people from publishing things about him that he doesn't like. they sued mary trump to try to stop the book. and, you know, the past financial disputes within the family on which ms. trump and the president have definitely been on opposing sides, you know, that certainly tells you, yeah, you know, wow, there's probab probably family bitterness there, take that with a grain of salt when you read very unflattering things she has to say about him. you know, those financial disputes, themselves, she's not hiding them. and they're not just psychological context in terms of understanding what she's written here those financial disputes are also material to this as news. because part of the story that mary trump has to tell is about the president cheating financially. including trying to cheat members of his own family. those disputes ultimately lead to mary trump having reams of trump family financial documents which turns out contained evidence of decades-long schemes carried out by the president and his family to not just evade taxes, but to commit serious financial fraud including some types of financial fraud that may have affected tenants in new york city in a we thay that continues even to this day those alleged fraudulent schemes and tax evasion schemes were laid out from those documents that mary trump provided and explained ultimately in a gonzo huge "new york times" investigation that produced a pulitzer prize for the reporters who wrote it and created legal concerns for the president that remain today as both congressional investigators and new york prosecutors have just been cleared by the united states supreme court to pursue financial records and tax records for both the president, himself, and his businesses. just today, new york prosecute s ers and the president's lawyers were in court arguing about how quickly a subpoena for his financial records can now be served now that the supreme court says he can't evade that subpoena just because he's president. i should say the prosecutors were making the case to that judge today for how quickly they'd like to get those records from the president the president i's lawyers were arguing to the judge how much more slowly they'd like the judge to go, please, because tick tock, election's in november also, tick tock, mary trump's book about her lifelong knowledge of the conduct and scams of the president, well, that book is out now and it has sold a million copies and there's a weeks-long waiting list right now to get a physical copy of this book at some major booksellers. that said, you have an advantage because you are here and mary trump joins us here tonight to talk about it. joining us now is mary l. trump. she is the niece of president donald trump she's the author of the new book called "too much and never enough : how my family created the world's most dangerous man." ms. trump, thank you so, so much for being here we have been through -- we've been through the wars together, technically, in terms of trying to get this sbrinterview on the air. thanks so much for sticking with us and thank you for being here. >> it's an honor, rachel i really appreciate your having me >> first, let me ask you in terms of the introduction that i did there and the way that i set this up if i'm looking at any of that the wrong way or if i've been misconstruing anything that you were trying to do in terms of the way that you approached the book i want to make sure that i'm explaining these things in terms that you're comfortable with >> yeah, it was both accurate and devastating. >> how are you doing since the book has landed? i mean, i imagine you knew that this was going to make a splash, but i can't imagine that you thought it was going to make this big a splash both in terms of the number of books sold but also the attention, the national attention, that this has brought to you is this how you thought it would go >> not even close. it's been extraordinarily gratifying i have to say. it's been a long time coming and it hasn't always been an easy road. so really happy, way beyond my expectations >> have you heard from anybody in your family or in the white house or the trump organization or anybody since the book came out or since people knew what was in the book or has it just been basically the legal fight to try to stop you from publishing, other than that you've been on your own? >> yeah, it's just been the legal fight. and i think that's -- that's fine with me that's appropriate >> i found myself thinking in speed reading the book the first day that i got it and then rereading it when i found out i was going to get a chance to talk to you, i found myself thinking about your, like, acute cognizance of whether it's a useful thing for you to do this. you, obviously on election night were despondent that your uncle had won the presidency and we learn through the book about the deep, dark, sort of secrets of your family in terms of why you feel like he is so inappropriate. so unsuited for the job. but you also seem to be sort of resigned to the idea that nothing you say might change anybody's view about him that you didn't release the book before the 2016 election because you didn't think it would make a difference or change anybody's mind how did you -- how did you -- how did your state of mind about that question change between 2016 and now that you felt like it was worth taking it on now, it was worth putting yourself out there? >> yeah, that's a great question there's been quite an evolution and i think we need to start with the fact that the concept of learned helplessness is something that runs very deep in my family. and i think there are examples in the book that point to that so, in 2016 literally all i would have had was my own experience and my own voice. and i -- there was no reason for me to believe that either one of those would have mattered. i thought about it, but first of all, in the context of all the other things that were going on, the donald was getting away with, from his attacks on a gold-star family, the khans, and serge koboleski, a reporter at "the new york times" and, of course, culminating in the "access hollywood" tape, i just didn't think anybody would take me seriously i had a lot of reasons to believe that i would be dismissed as a disgruntled, disinherited niece, who had been out of the family to all intents and purposes for almost 20 years., too, was thinking that donald was the problem. right? and, of course, after the inauguration, he would be surrounded by more competent people who understood how government worked and they would protect him and us from his worst impulses clearly, i was wrong to make that assumption. so it wasn't just the speed with which he started upending norms which he'd started doing during the campaign it was the number of people who lined up to help him in that endeavor which has only grown longer and more egregious as time's gone on i can't say that there was a last straw because there have been so many straws, but certainly, the horrors at the border, you know, the separating of children from their parents, the torture, the kidnapping, and the incarceration of them in cages, was unthinkable, unbearable, and when i had -- when an opportunity presented itself to me to do something, i needed to take a leap. >> our guest tonight is mary trump. her new book is called "too much and never enough." we'll be right back with more. ta-da! did you know liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? given my unique lifestyle, that'd be perfect! let me grab a pen and some paper. know what? i'm gonna switch now. just need my desk... my chair... and my phone. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ and still going for my best. even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib... ...not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i want that too. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke 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everything we wanted♪ ♪we can do it ♪all strength, no sweat save without even leaving your house. just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. you can get it by ordering a free sim card online. once you activate, you only have to pay for the data you need, starting at just $15 a month. there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. get a $50 prepaid card when you switch. 5g is now included with all new data options. switch and save hundreds. xfinity mobile. you write in a very dramatic section of the book toward the end about the leap that you took when you decided that you would provide the financial documents that you had to "the new york times. there's this great moment where you describe the reporter, suzanne craig, from "the new york times" turning up on your doorstep to ask, help, to ask for your help with this thing that they are working on in terms of trump family finances and you say to her that it is, quote, so not cool that you are showing up at my house and you send her away but do let her leave her card with you. and i asked suzanne craig about that she was very professional and really wouldn't talk about her side of that at all other than to confirm everything you were saying was true. >> right. >> but that -- that seems to me like that was maybe a pivot point for you, too you initially did not have any interest in talking to her, but something happened with you alone you decided, you know what, maybe those documents can help and they should get out there. without even really knowing what was in them, you decided to hand them over. what was that process like >> first of all, the crucial difference was that suzanne craig, extraordinary investigative reporter, was finally giving me something concrete that i could do i totally forgotten about those documents and there was no reason for me to think they mattered they hadn't mattered when i needed them 20 years ago why would they matter now? an after i asked her to leave but took her card, anyway, in an interesting bit of unconscious wishfulness i guess, she persisted. she wrote me a few letters she called a couple of times and i thought about it you know, i still wasn't necessarily going to do anything because it wasn't even clear to them what would be in these documents, quite honestly. and i didn't feel yet able to. it would have been taking a big risk not that i necessarily felt that, but it was so amorphous, still, for me, and then i fractured my fifth metatarsal badly and wound up on my couch for a few months so i watched far too much tv than was good for me and was on twitter far too much as well and watching in real time what was happening to this country. the destruction of institutional norms, the perversion of our institutions that were desiesigd to protect us. the failure of the other branches of government was really weighing on me so finally one night i remembered all of the things sue had been telling me and i decided to trust her and i called her we had a long conversation and within a week i was on my way on my crutches to the office of the lawyer who'd represented me all those years ago and it's a much longer story than i'll tell now, but a few weeks later i left with 19 boxes full of whatturned out to be quite explosive documents. >> and they were explosive in ways that you didn't necessarily understand when you decided to hand them over i mean, part of the "times" reporting and part of the reason their piece was like, 14,000 words and went on to win the pulitzer prize is they were able to tease out from essentially anodyne looking records this incredible story of alleged fraud and criminal tax evasion and, again, there are some trailing ends of that right now in terms of the president's potential legal liability, but by the time the "times" story came out, did you know what they had? did you know that sort of the explosiveness of the alleged misdeeds that they were going to uncover, thanks to what you gave them >> i had no idea it was extraordinary i mean, the brilliance o overstated they were anodyne documents but they were also incredibly complex. and the financial devices that my family used to cover up certain things they were doing were not easily decipherable so, i was utterly blown away as, you know, just objectively by the story, but also personally, to find out just exactly what had happened in the family that i didn't understand at the time and also considering it wasn't just, you know, people in my family did these things that they shouldn't have done, but that these were my aunts and uncles who also happened to be my trustees and clearly i didn't benefit from the role that they were supposed to play in protecting my financial interests when i was younger >> the consequences of that reporting and of what was uncovered thanks to those documents that you had access to and handed over and that those reporters analyzed, still i'm not sure we totally understand what the ultimate implication of that is going to be. obviously, there's statute of limitations questions for a lot of that alleged behavior in terms of whether or not it could ever be criminally charged, but it does seem to have cost your aunt, mary ann trump, her lifetime job on the federal bench. she resigned ahead after heahe inquiry that would have looked into her role in those financial schemes. it also is potentially linked to both the congressional investigation and new york prosecutors' subpoenas that now have been greenlit by the supreme court. in terms of the president's finances and trump organization finances being handed over do -- how -- going through what you've been through, learning what you have learned, knowing what your family has done, do you have any expectations in terms of what prosecutors or congressional investigators might find if they got complete -- the kind of access that they want to the financial records that your uncle is trying to keep hidden? >> i have no particular insight into that. you know, nobody's spoken to me about it essentially, my role ended when i handed over the 40,000 pages of documents but if the "times" story is anything to go by, i think there's a lot more to uncover. and there will clearly now that the supreme court made, in my opinion, the correct ruling, there will be many more documents to come. >> let me ask you, mary, about something that you said in an interview with "washington post" this week. you talked with ashley parker at the "washington post." and you said there was -- she's quoted you saying there was knee jerk anti-semitism, knee jerk racism, in your family the "post" quotes you as saying, "growing up it was sort of normal to hear them use the "n" word or use anti-semitic expressions. i wanted to you to expand on that do you mean just generally within the family that was an accepted thing or do you mean specifically you heard your uncle, donald, use that kind of language >> just generally. with the older generations as if it were perfectly commonplace and ordinary to say such things. i had the benefit of living in jamaica, not jamaica estates, and going to school in forest hills, so i didn't share their ideas about race and judaism at all. when you grow up with that, being perfectly normal, then you don't really think twice about it >> have to press you on it a little bit just to ask if the president, if your uncle, was an exception to that in your family or if he -- if you ever heard him express, either use anti-semitic slurs or the "n" words or other racist words or sentiments. do you mean this was an ambient thing in your family and never heard it from him or hear it from him, too? >> yeah, of course, i did. i don't think that should surprise anybody given how racist he is today. >> have you heard -- have you heard the president use the "n" word >> yeah. >> and anti-semitic slurs, specifically >> yes >> mary trump's new book, "too much and never enough," is about her uncle, the 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diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer can bring up questions that make you feel like shutting down. go here: findyourmbcvoice.com in a highly-connected lexus vehicle at the golden opportunity sales event. lease the 2020 es 350 for $359 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. experience amazing this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit. i thought was the single weirdest thing in the book, which other reviewers and people who have read it and talked about it have not singled out. this strikes me as so weird i literally woke up in the night thinking about it. >> i'm sorry >> it's -- you -- no, it's all right. i wake up a lot, anyway. but it's this anecdote where you are being introduced to the -- not the president but donald trump, your uncle at the time introducing you to ivanka, who would go on to become the first lady, page 163 spro deuces y introduces you to mrs. trump and immediately tells melania in front of you that you had a terrible drug problem, which is not true, you correct him in the moment, never done drugs in pmy life "he slid me a smile, he was embellishing the story for a fact and knew i knew it. she was a total disaster, smiling more broadly." the reason this sticks with me is not just because he told a weird lie about you doing drugs when you didn't do drugs but that he voiced that lie in front of you when he knew that it wasn't true and then seemed to sort of take pleasure in you being helpless before him lying about you? it's a very -- psychologically, your trade isclinical psychology, psychologically that's a weird portrait about what pleasure a person would get from lying, isn't it >> yeah. it's also a power play >> hmm. >> one, it fits into his favorite narrative you know, the comeback is much more impressive if you're coming back from a really awful place in the gutter like being a drug addict instead of just, like, having a tough time in life, just as with his comeback, you know, it was the bankruptcies and the horrible economy and he was really down for the count. so, therefore, climbing the summit again was even more impressive although, you know, it's questionable whether that actually happened. so, there's that it's framing the narrative in a way he prefers it also makes him the savior because remember, that story is told in the context of, and then i gave her a job so, he's sort of taking responsibilityin part for my reclamation, if you will but more than that, it really is a power play the difference between that anecdote and other things i see happening is most of the time people don't correct him, which completely plays into his hand because then he's -- he can do it with impunity >> in that sort of -- the comeback idea there is because he did at one point engage you to potentially ghost write another one of his ghost-written books which would be about "the art of the comeback. it's also telling and fascinating to me that after you spent time at the trump organization and you were, you know, provided materials that you were supposed to srt ort ofe to start ghost writing this book, you write pointedly, the last line of one of your chapters that for all that you were allowed to see and all that you were allowed to witness including sitting in on his supposed business phone calls where he'd just put somebody on speaker without him -- without that person knowing that you were listening in, getting all this access, you write you really at the end of it had absolutely no idea what he did for a living, it never became clear to you what his actual business work was because it never really seemed like he was doing anything that's fascinating to me because a lot of people who have taken a look at his finances and his business -- supposed business background, have also come up empty but they've been looking from a distance. you were looking from up close and just felt like there was no -- there was no actual real business work ever done by him >> right it's also important to remember, it was a very small company. certainly compared t estate developers. but the only work i saw being done was by other people in the office so it was pretty fascinating first of all, his never being willing to sit for an interview with me but then just having absolutely no insight into any productive projects that he was engaged in i didn't see any evidence of it. >> mary trump is our guest tonight. her new book just sold nearly a million copies on its first day. more ahead stay with us (vo) parents have a way of imagining the worst... ...especially when your easily distracted teenager has the car. at subaru, we're taking on distracted driving... ...with sensors that alert you when your eyes are off the road. the subaru forester. the safest forester 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hard for any president to be kind of a hero here, right? to use the defense production act to produce more supplies and tests and ppe. i mean, you have to listen to the scientific experts and, you know, amplify their message and do what they say activate the gears of government that are supposed to turn during this kind of crisis. instead, he didn't, and you kind of, as i said, marvel at that in the book i think the country along with you is kind of stuck on this open question that you are asking here about why and how he has bungled this crisis so badly. just now openly musing that it will go away on its own as if that's the only thing that he's capable of doing i wonder if you can just talk a little bit about why you wrote this part of the book and what you think the answer might be to that question about why the president has made all the wrong decisions around this crisis and done so little work to fix anything >> i thought it was very important to address this because, of course, it's ongoing. even at the time i was writing, we were, i think in new york we were past the worst of it but it was clear that the rest of the country was not doing what it needed to do i want people to understand what a failure of leadership this is and the reason he's failing at it is because he's incapable of succeeding at it it would have required taking responsibility, which would, in his mind, have meant admitting a mistake which in his mind would be admitting weakness which in my family was essentially punished with the death penalty. symbolically, or otherwise what i think we need to grapple with now is why so many people are continuing to allow this the fact that he is dividing us at the expense of people's lives, i mean, what, we're 140,000 americans and counting are dead and the vast majority of those people did not need to lose their lives, if only donald had said, listen to the scientists, wear a mask, stay home the fact that this is continuing, people are dying every day. there are states in this country that are absolutely out of control. and to curry favor with donald, certain governors are continuing to ignore the science and more people are getting sick and more people are going to die. it is utterly insane at this point. we need to wake up and instead of taking it seriously, instead of standing aside and letting the experts take over, donald is hocking black beans. it would be add subsurd if it w' so devastating >> your uncle, of course, has a very reasonable chance at winning a secondcourse, has a very reasonable chance at winning a second term. any incumbent does, even one with sort of upside numbers like he has right now what do you think the consequences of another four years of a donald trump presidency would be? you write about that in the book, as if you are genuine lie fearful that a second term could be qualitatively for dangerous for country than his first term was. >> yeah. and i want to -- i want to make something really clear this -- this is beyond partisanship this is so beyond party. we need to be thinking about this, as americans we need to be thinking about what -- who we want to be as a people, going forward. i hear people say, all the time, this is not who we are this is exactly who we are right now. so, continuing along this path, which is exactly what would happen if donald were to be elected in 2020, would, i absolutely believe, be the end of the american experiment i do not believe there's any coming back from this. there are too many enablers who are, for whatever reason, continuing to enable him bill barr has gutted the justice department mike pompeo has gutted the state department we are in serious, serious danger, here and unfortunately, that is no longer hyperbolic. that's just the way it is. >> do you share the concerns that some people have voiced that if your uncle loses the election, that he might try to not leave the white house? that he might try to hold onto power through some extrademocratic means, by force. do you think that sort of worry is hyperbolic at this point? or is that the sort of thing that you're concerned he might resort >> no, i think it's perfectly reasonable to think about that but how he responds, depends a lot on, if he loses, how badly he loses i think the more resounding joe biden victory, the less likely it is for donald to stick around he, as a, you know, somebody who needs to be right all the time and needs to be winning all the time will need, desperately, to spin away from a crushing defeat and i don't know what form that would take but that, as far as i'm concerned, is the only way to, not guarantee but, at least, give us a better possibility that there will be a peaceful transition after the election on november 3rd >> okay. we're back with mary trump, in just a moment. i have one last sort of difficult-to-ask question that i want to ask her. that is straight ahead stay with us i should get a quote. do it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. 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that's simple, easy, awesome. transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. visit xfinity.com/moving today. question for you and again, i want to thank you for spending this much time here and talking with us. and i just have to ask given what you're saying about your uncle, and what degree you think he'd be willing to go to, in order to get what he wants. and what you've done, in terms of handing over documents to reporters. and what you have said in the book and what you've laid out here i just have to -- i -- i find myself worrying about you, and wondering if you are scared. if you feel like you have put yourself in personal danger, by doing what you've done and talking the way that you have, and saying the things that you've said. that the president obviously doesn't want out there in the world. it's different than some critic who has no relation to him criticizing him in harsh terms what you are doing is different and comes from a place that's very close to him. i i wonder if you feel safe? >> i'm not scared. i'm taking appropriate precautions, certainly, because i am not diluted about potential scenarios. he is in a position of great power. i know my family to be quite vindictive, and donald has a rather passionate following. but, all of that aside, i -- this need -- i needed to do this i felt it was my responsibility. i felt it was my obligation. and whatever the consequences are, i'm prepared to deal with them, as best i can. >> mary l. trump the book is called "too much and never enough, how my family created the world's most dangerous man. it is breaking records, in terms of books sold on its first day and it is changing the world, as we speak mary trump, thank you so much for -- for writing the book. but also, especially, for being here to help us understand it. come back neanytime you want to. i'd love to have you back. >> thank you so much, rachel. >> i need to tell you we did ask the white house tonight for a response to mary trump's claims, that she has heard the president use anti-semitic slurs and racial slurs, including specifically the n word, the white house gave us this statem response. quote, this is a book of falsehoods, plain and simple the president doesn't use those words. just to be clear, this claim that mary trump says she's heard the president use the n word and other racist slurs and anti semitic slurs, that claim isn't actually from her book it's just something she said in this interview so them denouncing the book doesn't help but still, we thank the white house for at least giving us the statement. that is going to do it for us tonight. i am now going to have like ten martinis and try to not think about this for a few hours god. god bless us all this is an msnbc special series >> voting is as american as apple pie. i voted in every election since 1980 to me, the right to vote is as fundamental as the right to eat. i'm traveling through some key battleground states. >> if you change florida, you change america >> eating some of the best food in the country. >> that's as good as barbecue gets. >> and questioning whether that basic right really is open to everyone >> why wouldn't we do everything that we can to make sure that everyone can vote? >> but we do. >> there is no better way to find out what's really going on than by sharing a meal. >> this is insane. >> with those fighting for a seat at the table. it's not a red/blue issue. this is an american issue. >> i'm andrew zimmern. storyteller, chef, world traveler. >> that's delicious. >> i'm exploring our country, looking at the biggest social and political questions of the day, through the lens of food. i mean, there is no one solution sharing some amazing meals, along the way. and trying to figure out what's eating america november 2020 could be the most important election in modern-american history. yet, several states are actively making it more difficult for people to cast their vote. >> as wisconsin is springing into action to take more than 230,000 voters off the rolls, effective immediately. the great state of georgia, as of tonight, is doing the same thing. >> voter suppression has a long history in the united states so does the fight for voting rights modern-day act vikivists on the front lines at places like the ballot box in places like arizona, florida my first stop is atlanta, georgia, to visit a legendary name in soul food since 1947 pascal's classic dishes, like smothered catfish, ribs, and savory greens and of course, the house specialty, fried chicken help make pascal's one of atlanta's hottest spots. it was, also, a place that helped fuel the fight for civil rights throughout the 1960s. >> this is where the coalition started. we had a hotel, at that time and they met there, day and night. sometimes, they wouldn't leave for act a month. this was just known as the home for the movement and for everybody to congregate in atlanta. >> they nurtured and they fed martin luther king john lewis coretta scott king. >> historian and author of the book "one person, in vote. >> to think about what it takes to steel yourself, to be able to face the kind offolks, who were determined to break open an oppressive system. and to have a place where you can get nurtured, fed, replenished, renewed it's absolutely essential. >> the one thing that i've always known, since i was little, was that hug that only food can give you. right? in an era when african-americans were denied service throughout the south, dining out, itself, could be an act of resistance. >> they're famous for their fried chicken. i couldn't help getting us a little bit of catfish and shrimp jambalaya. >> this is what reminds me of my mom. >> when i read your book, my eyes opened because everything starts with a person's right to vote >> dr. anderson writes in her book that freed slaves exercise their new voting rights in large numbers after the civil war, and began winning elections. so white southerners devised new methods to keep fellow sit zepe disenfranchisement of black voters. >> always, to keep black people away from the voting booth. >> absolute i. through the 1950s and into the '60s, african-americans began organizing the civil rights movement, demanding their right to vote. then, on march 7th, 1965, in selma, alabama >> this march will not continue. >> bloody sunday a three-day peaceful march, turned violent police attacked marchers on the edmund pettus bridge, injuring dozens, sending 17 to the hospital months later, a major turning point in the fight the passage of the voting rights act. >> every american citizen must have an equal right to vote. >> signed by president johnson, the act outlawed poll taxes, literacy tests, and other tack tak tactics of suppression 55 years later, in 2013, the supreme court struck down a key provision of the act concerning federal preapproval for election laws nine states wasted no time changing their voting rules. >> two hours after the supreme court gutted the voting rights act, texas implemented its voter i.d. law that multiple courts have found to be racially discriminatory. within a few months, alabama implements its voter i.d. law. these legislators wrote the law, based on the types of i.d.s that african-americans, disproportionately, did not have what we are seeing now is massive voter suppression, in the 2016 election, the first presidential election in 50 years without the protection of the voting rights act. black voter turnout went down by 7%. >> that 7%, dr. anderson believes, didn't just stay home because they didn't like the candidates but as a clear result of voter suppression and misinformation targeting black voters in the last decade, 25 states used the specter of voter fraud to enact laws that make it hard for people to vote but voter fraud is almost nonexistent in america the problem isn't fraud. it's that there are more barriers between voters and the ballot box >> when the majority of americans have the right to vote, then, we're going to get the democracy we deserve and not the one that people are trying to foist upon us >> critics of yours have said that you've been running elections on behalf of democrats. >> i say those folks are just full of it so, if your network's down, you're down. verizon knows your customers need to reach you seamlessly. your team needs to work from different places across many devices. plus, you want the security trusted by some of the largest companies in the world. and that's why you trust us. the most reliable network in america. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ we see you. doing your part by looking out...for all of us. and though you may have lost sight of your own well-being, aetna never did. by setting up virtual monitoring for chronic patients, 24-hour telemedicine visits, and mental health resources for everyone. we're always here to help you focus on your health. because it's always, time for care. ♪ ♪ ♪all strength ♪we ain't stoppin' believe me♪ ♪go straight till the morning look like we♪ ♪won't wait♪ ♪we're taking everything we wanted♪ ♪we can do it ♪all strength, no sweat ♪ ♪ we've always put safety first. ♪ ♪ and we always will. ♪ ♪ for people. ♪ ♪ for the future. ♪ ♪ and there has never been a summer when it's mattered more. wherever you go, summer safely. get zero percent apr financing for up to five years on select models and exclusive lease offers. arizona. land of big skies, big deserts, and a big role to play in the 2020 election. to understand the impact voter suppression can have here, i'm meeting a man who is fighting for voting rights, from inside the system >> you ready well, let's go >> whenever a politician invites me to a speakeasy to check out their mariachi band, well, my answer is always yes adrian fontez is the first democrat, in 25 years, and first latino ever elected to countywide office in maricopa county >> thank you. >> this is your guitar for quite a long time. >> this guitar and i have been together longer than i've been married to my wife. >> i can see, i mean, just looking at the at the frets, you play with a strong left hand. >> yes, i am a democrat. >> when he's not with his band mariachi af, fontez is the maricopa county recorder that's the official who oversees elections. >> i just want voters to be able to vote and i want their ballots to count. >> it's a big job because maricopa county, which includes phoenix, is hom to nearly 4.5 million people. >> if maricopa county was a state, we'd be right between kentucky and oregon. i was just in idaho. we have got more voters than they have people and horses. >> the story how this lawyer and former marine became county recorder begins with arizona's march 2016 presidential preference election. the state's version of a presidential primary. >> yesterday, thousands of people in maricopa county waited in line for three, four, some five, hours to vote. five hours. >> tell me about 2016. >> i went down to one of the polling places and when i showed up, there is people standing in long lines and there's cops everywhere. and i'm like this is not america. >> maricopa county had slashed the number of polling places by 70%. predominantly, in minority neighborhoods. local newspapers reported that more than 100,000 voters walked away, without casting a ballot. >> and that hurt me, personally. and that really prompted discussion, this is wrong. something has to happen. something has to change. >> fontez decided to be the change he ran for county recorder, himself, and won. >> that was the first election you ever ran in? >> yes i was going to run in 2014 for state house. and that didn't pan out because i wasn't really very serious about it but this one was like in the gut. the idea that people couldn't vote, in my town, in my state mu that was just like, nope, not soe acceptable. >> for the midterms, fontez had the ability to interpret the laws and created emergency voting sites. >> i am so honored that arizonans chose our vision of a better arizona >> for about first time in decades, democrats, narrowly, won two key races. republicans cried foul, claiming the emergency voting law doesn't specify what qualifies as an emergency. >> critics of yours have been saying you've been running elections on behalf of democrats. >> i say those folks are just full of it 2,700 people that vod at those locations this is a controversy that they created because they don't like me >> after the election, republican legislators passed a law that makes emergency voters sign an afb daffidavit stating y have emergency. >> you wanted to make it easier for people to vote. >> i wanted to get america back, for those people who couldn't vote because they got cheated out of that. and if you are narrowing that pool of voters for a political motive, that's flatout unamerican >> in all of my conversations with so many people around the topic of voter suppression, one name keeps coming up michelle ugente rita. >> i hope you are going to like this place it's so good. >> what do you usually have here >> i usually, because i don't have the best pronunciation. i go i'll do the 14 and the 20. >> rita is a republican state senator with a long track record of sponsoring bills that, she says, are designed to protect the integrity of state elections. >> it sounds real dry and boring but it's, honestly, i think, hot and sexy because it -- it -- it matters >> we're grabbing lunch. the grilled calamari and oil for her. and whenever there's house cured prosciutta, i have to try it. >> so good. >> it's all really, really nice. the squid. great choice, by the way love it. can you tell me about your bill prohibiting the dropping off of mail-in ballots at the polls >> sure. so, in arizona, you can vote by mail your ballot is sent to you in the mailbox. and the deal is you put it back in the mailbox what has been happening though is many people drop it off at a polling location on election day. >> i think it's addressing a problem that really doesn't exist. who cares if they drop off their ballot at least they're voting and getting it heard if it's delayed by a day or two, what does it matter? we need to encourage, everywhere we can, people to vote. >> look. this isn't a system -- the mail-in system is a convenience the state offers if it's not convenient for you, don't sign up. >> that bill did not make it through the arizona state senate. >> you sponsored a bill this year, which became law, that makes people swear that they have a real emergency that prevents them from voting. and threatens a criminal prosecution if they are found to have stretched the truth what was the point of that bill? >> it's a great bill, and i did sponsor it there was no accountability to make sure the people utilizing the emergency center were truly experiencing an emergency. >> who cares if they come in the next day because they feel that they have an emergency >> okay. that is a recipe for, like, chaos and anarchy. >> how so? >> the laws -- the laws matter if you don't like the law, if you really -- if you don't like it, repeal it. >> ah. i love kapanada. >> the senator maintains each of her bills are designed to make voting easier, not more restrictive. >> i -- i -- i just think it doesn't exist. i don't know anybody who wants to suppress anyone's vote. what undermines the system is -- is playing identity politics is constantly telling different communities that, somehow, they're being treated differently. and -- and treating them like they need some special consideration because they can't manage on their own. that -- that is what i condemn >> i think -- i think a lot of those communities, latino community, the native american indigenous first peoples populations here, have -- have, systemically, been prevented access we do need to help them have, not just a seat at the baseball b table. but a seat that's the same height and the same distance to the food as everyone else. >> no doubt. and that is why we need to have proper i.d. laws. >> oh. >> i had an i.d. bill. i'm surprised you didn't even bring it up. >> maybe we're getting there why within t why wouldn't we do everything we can to make sure people can vote >> we do we do. if you're not voting, you don't want to vote, in arizona so have i >> no. i like the eating and arguing. it feels very italian. >> it does i want to throw something. >> how many people have been convicted of voter impersonation in alabama >> since i've been the secretary of state, zero. >> so, why a voter i.d. law? how about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. which is why we keep taking care of ourselves, like screening for colon cancer. because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. cologuard is noninvasive and detects altered dna in your stool... ...to find 92% of colon cancers... ...even in early stages. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. so, don't wait to screen. ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. ♪ ♪all strength ♪we ain't stoppin' believe me♪ ♪go straight till the morning look like we♪ ♪won't wait♪ ♪we're taking everything we wanted♪ ♪we can do it ♪all strength, no sweat arizona is a swing state and potential tipping point in the 2020 election. 50 years ago, not everyone could cast their votes here. the through the 1970s, latinos in arizona were given literacy tests. those who failed, were not allowed to vote. today, latinos are taking a stand and they are helping to flip arizona from solid red to purple and in maricopa county, even to blue. >> if you want to get out the latino vote and understand how it's possible to do that, then, you have to come talk to these three incredible women abril, alex gomez, and gina mendez run living united for change in arizona or lucha they have invited me for breakfast at a little tacoria. fried tortilla strips. spicy salsa and cheese. >> we were having debate whether eggs go on top of. >> so my preferred breakfast in any restaurant like this give me chile and put fried eggs on top and it's just about the best breakfast in the world. >> in spanish, lucha means fight and that's exactly what the group has had to do to grow political power. >> so in 2012, we started with 13,000 and we thought that was like the most amazing number and we are really proud to say that, in 2018, we were able to, as a coalition, register almost 200,000 people to vote >> do you find that because we have a man in the oval office right now, saying the most horrific things about people from mexico. that it's a little easier to mobilize and convince people they're voters >> we do see what we call a people's wave. that people are ready. they're excited to participate and what our organizations do is make sure that our families know that they don't have to live in fear >> it's a sunday in phoenix. and lucha is mobilizing to register voters. >> who increased minimum wage? we did that's right and who is going to get rid of trump in 2020? >> we are. >> all right l let's go my people, we got a story. ♪ we got to tell the whole worl this is people territory ♪ ♪ i said my people, we got a story, we got to tell the world this is people territory ♪ >> with many undocumented in this phoenix neighborhood, residents are weary of a knoc n on the door. [ speaking foreign language >> why is it so important for you to participate in this process? >> that's right. that's right i am extraordinarily moved by these idealistic, young people many of them are out here fighting for people's right to vote because their parents can't vote here's the thing several of these activists can't cast a ballot, either. like abrille, she is a dreamer brought here, undocumented, from mexico a mexico as a child. >> what keeps pushing us to do the work that we do. in the midst of all this, what still connects us to our roots is the food, right >> are you rewarding me from a hard morning of canvassing with lunch at your mom's house? >> yes. >> so you're so lucky. >> everybody loves my mom's quesadillas. >> when you say quesadilla to people, most people think of a 12-inch flour tortilla with these and it's something that you order a 5-year-old this is a case kquesadilla the e food gods intended it to be cooked abrille's mom sandra uses yellow corn to make her masa, stuffs it with seasoned beef and cheese, and deep fries it to perfection. >> it's a little hot. >> this is insane. your mom's a really good cook. i mean, really good. how does your mother feel about the fact that you're devoting your life to helping people to get the right to vote, but you don't have the right to vote, yourself >> my mom, my dad, always say like we're going to pray for all of you guys. they call us angels of justice. >> you are an angel of justice do you think that you'll ever be able to vote in this country >> i'm hopeful when we think about legends of like women fighting for the right to vote and all that i think about like, in the future, whil gen i would get to share the stories with my children, maybe my grandchildren, about how there was one time where their mom or their grandma couldn't vote and now i can. >> it's going to be a party at your house. >> yes, like we're going to have many quesadillas and voting or something like that. for sure, there's going to be food. >> there is no way that politicians should have that much power to decide which american citizen get to vote, and which american citizen don't get to vote. mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can reduce pain, swelling, and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. don't let another morning go by without asking your doctor about the pill first prescribed for ra more than seven years ago. xeljanz. thisirus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit. here is what's happening coronavirus pandemic continues to grow in the u.s., as the number of confirmed cases nears 3.8 million. at this hour, the death toll stands over 141,000. in florida, some hospitals report they are running out of the drug remdesivir. one of the few drugs currently being used to treat coronavirus. state officials say 30,000 vials are on the way now, back to what's eating america. in order to see one of the biggest voting rights fights of the nation, i've come to, where else, the sunshine state florida is almost always the key state in deciding the presidency >> you've been saying florida, florida, florida. >> i never stop saying florida, florida, florida. >> imposed a lifetime voting ban on anyone convicted of a felony. in 2018, the number of formerly incarcerated felons in florida was greater than in any other state. and disproportionately, african-american a total of 1.4 million people. even after serving their time, they were still not allowed to vote one of them was desmond mead >> so this is a special blend of seasoning i have on it the mead secret recipe. >> and i'm never going to get it. >> no, that is a trade secret. >> mead started fighting for his right to vote when he was at his personal bottom. >> in august of 2005, i was hooked on crack cocaine. i was recently released from prison homeless unemployed i was standing in front of rail rea road tracks and the only thing was how i'm going to feel when i jumped in front of an oncoming train. for some reason, that train didn't come. >> he poured himself into overturning that felony disenfranchisement law >> we can't vote. >> no. >> because we got a record you know, so just because we can't vote, that means we got to be silenced, right >> right >> to understand the full context of what desmond mead faces to reclaim his vote in florida, i have come to st. petersburg. >> the sign said stop right here i just do what i'm told, ma'am >> this is the duces a historic african-american neighborhood in south st. petersburg. >> do you have to be 6'10" to barbecue properly? >> no, 7-foot. >> you want to wrestle >> i'm too big to arm wrestle. >> residents here understand the power of their vote. >> that's exactly right. everyone i vote. >> especially, over here if we don't vote and get out and vote, we are just pushed back further and further and further. that one vote counts. >> take a bite for the country >> that's as good as barbecue gets the duces is also home to chiefs cafe, a favorite for things like hearty gumbo and shrimp and grits. i am hear to meet one of desmond mead's allies. >> it's out of control >> i think it's the best krr charlie crist represents the district which includes the duces but he was florida's republican governor and a supporter of expanded voting. >> lekds laws, that have been passed in the name of voter fraud. was that ever the real reason? >> i don't think so. it's the reason given. . >> yeah. >> but i think the real reason is to make it more difficult for the other party to be successful. >> you extended early-voting hours. you extended the number of polling locations and restored voting rights to more than 33,000 returning citizens. those are people coming out of prison each year when you were governor, what type of reaction a that point >> concern i started getting calls from some of my then-fellow republicans. what are you doing and i said if these people have paid their debt to society, i believe in forgiveness >> and i guess, like the disenfranchised communities and the vulnerable populations, this is a ghost community that isn't seen from. but it's massive. >> it's huge we are the largest swing state in the country so if you change the dynamic and the calculus, as it relates to florida, you change america. >> in his single term as governor, charlie crist restored voting rights to more than 150,000 returning citizens >> today is the end of politics, as usual, in tallahassee. >> but under crist's successor, republican governor rick scott, that flood became a trickle. >> number 66, leon gellis the 3rd is here. >> a parade of returning citizens would travel to the state capitol to petition for the return of their voting rights >> i commend you for what you have done to turn your life around but at this point, i am going to deny restoration of revcivil rights. >> governor scott restored voting rights to three times as many white men as african-american men. >> can ci ask you a question >> sure. >> how long is that? >> i'm not sure. you know, i think every -- every case is different. >> in this case, leon gillis the 3rd, a community leader who founded a halfway house for other returning citizens, never did have his voting rights restored before he died just a few years ago. >> in eight total years, i believe less than 5,000 people were able to have their rights restored. >> roughly, 40 times the number of floridians saw their voting rights restored during governor charlie crist's years in office. >> there is no way politicians should have that much power to decide which american citizen get to vote and which american citizen don't get to vote. >> agreed. >> so desmond created a ballot initiative called amendment 4. and on november 6th, 2018. >> the amendment that will restore voting rights to 1.5 million people, that passed. >> our vote! >> our voice >> our vote! >> our voice >> you had over 5.1 million votes that was based on love, forgiveness, and redemption. on election night, the world actually got to see love winning the day. >> and in the weeks after amendment 4 passed, desmond was among thousands who rushed to register >> there are some people who think that amendment 4 was the end of something. >> but, remember, it's florida only six months after those rights were restored, the republic republican le republic republican legislature added a condition. >> the bill passes. >> they passed a law that requires each returning citizen to pay all outstanding fines and fees to the many who can't afford that, the new law acts just like a poll tax that requirement has been challenged in the courts >> more and more people are understanding the power of people who are closest to the pain returning citizens leading the charge into communities that, typically, are ignored by people on both sides. >> in july 2020, the united states supreme court declined to overturn the federal appeals court's decision despite florida's vote restoring rights to ex-felons, they will not be allowed to vote until all fines are paid. >> i'm looking at the face of recovery in america right here that is a dad and taxpayer who is activating people. >> right but we're transforming the world. >> and doing it, one plate at a time the pepper, the garlic. >> onion powder. >> a little paprika in there >> you don't get the rest of it. >> there is a whole bunch of folk that care about black votes but don't care about black voters alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (vo)you start with america's verizmost awarded network, to build unlimited right. the one with unbeatable reliability 13 times in a row. this network is one less thing i have to worry about. 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[rapid typing and clicking] apartments-dot-com. the most popular place to find a place. i'm touring the state, alabama, with a troubled past. and, some would argue, a troubled present and i'm going in style >> hey how you doing? >> welcome to the blackest bus in america. >> thank you so much for letting me ride along. >> we're glad to have you. >> all right >> la tasha brown and cliff albright are the founders of black voters matter. the group is constantly on the move energizing communities to get organized and turn out on election day >> how do you motivate people who think your vote doesn't matter or your vote doesn't count >> our response is to say, you know what? we feel you. we agree we feel the same thing to affirm the frustration they are feeling is real to tell people, one, that they're loved. two, they're not alone and three, that they matter. >> we intentionally named our organization black voters matter instead of black votes matter because there a whole bunch of folk that care about black votes but don't care about black voters. >> i don't know how i could meet two people so quickly and fall in love so fast. >> we're just loveable. >> we are cruising along one of the historic routes of the freedom riders our ultimate destination is selma, alabama but we're stopping to see key civil rights landmarks along the way. >> what got you into activism? >> my entire life, i never could stand bullies. like, i always had this piece of not wanting to see people be mistreated and so, as i got older, i started paying attention to why certain communities look certain ways and some communities don't. it's one thing to have a system. it's another thing to have people who are -- feel so empowered. right? feel their own sense of power, that they're willing to go through what ever means to transform a system >> first stop, montgomery. the state capital. birthplace of the civil rights movement and first capital of the confederacy. >> and if you look at the statl. >> alabama has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the united states. and the effect on black voting has been dramatic. even though 26% of alabama's p population is black, none of the statewide offic statewide officeholders are african-american the man responsible for elections here is the secretary of state john merrill. we are grabbing lunch at dreamland barbecue. >> you bring him some slab, you bring him some sweet tea. >> unsweetened i know i know trying to watch my waistline, mr. full slab. >> when he was a dastate legislator, merill was a co-sponsor of the voter i.d. law. >> how many people have been convicted of voter impersonation in alabama >> since i've been the secretary of state, zero >> so why a voter i.d. law >> well, there's a reason we don't have in-person voter fraud. because we -- we have the i.d. law that would prevent that from occurring. >> you -- you've got a law on the books that's intended to solve a problem that we got a better chance of being struck by lightning than it actually happening. and it has negative consequence of disenfranchising a whole group of people. >> i don't see where that is since we're breaking every record in the state for participation. the state's turnout ranks in the bottom half of the country. >> man, are these good >> what are your feelings about alabama's history of keeping african-americans from voting? do you feel like you have an obligation to right those wrongs >> sure. but this is the thing you got to remember okay >> uh-huh. >> the time that we're talking about, that was a dark time in the past of alabama. i can't do anything about it i can't influence it i can't impact it. i can't change it. >> but the secretary of state can make sure that it doesn't happen again. >> so why not make it an automatic right? >> why when we've already had unparalleled and unprecedented success in the history of the state with what we're doing. >> automatic voter registration is catching on 16 states have approved it, but not alabama. >> i don't think that just because your birthday comes around, that you ought to be registered to vote just because you turned 18 doesn't give you the right to do anything. >> of course, being 18 and a citizen is exactly what the constitution says gives you the right to vote. instead of automatic registration, merill has a a more personalized solution. >> if there is a person that you know of that says i can't get off to go register all you got to do is call me on my cell phone and we will go to their job site and register them to vote right there. >> he really likes giving out his cell phone number. >> why don't y'all call this number they can call our office they can call us or they can call their courthouse or they can call me on my cell phone at 334-328-2787. all they need to do is contact us if you have a question, then you can contact us. >> call your cell phone. >> they can. >> people shouldn't have to contact john merill, directly, in order to exercise their right to vote. >> nancy abudu is an attorney with the southern poverty law center. >> alabama, actually, was sued a couple of years ago because it was not properly complying with which requires the availability of forms at government agencies. >> if you want everyone to vote, why not make it as simple as possible and there's lots of models for that around the country. oregon, for example. you hit 18, you're automatically registered to vote, period, full stop, end of discussion. oregon officials will tell you it's cheap, it's fast, and it's efficient. >> which means it's too easy >> so since there's still no automatic registration, if you live in alabama and are having trouble registering to vote, you have an open invitation. >> why don't y'all call this number >> please tell him i sent you. >> they were just beatin black. white. male female it didn't matter ♪ ♪ ♪ we've always put safety first. ♪ ♪ and we always will. ♪ ♪ for people. ♪ ♪ for the future. ♪ ♪ and there has never been a summer when it's mattered more. wherever you go, summer safely. get zero percent apr financing for up to five years on select models and exclusive lease offers. we see you. doing your part by looking out...for all of us. and though you may have lost sight of your own well-being, aetna never did. by setting up virtual monitoring for chronic patients, 24-hour telemedicine visits, and mental health resources for everyone. we're always here to help you focus on your health. because it's always, time for care. ♪ no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. after meeting people fighting for the right to vote, all over the country i make it to the birthplace of the movement selma. we are joined by veterans of the struggle who marched for voting rights here, 55 years ago. protest songs created a soundtrack for the movement. ♪ you never can jail us all ♪ oh tell wallace segregation's bound to fall ♪ >> the music was the thing that kept everything going. >> all right. >> we used to have us a good time >> you are amy kimy kind of lad the way. >> lind a lowry and her sister jan bland were there it's a day they'll never forget, nor should anyone else. >> crossed the bridge at 14 years old. i remember when we were walking up to the apex of this bridge, our singing just died down because what you saw, on the other side, was state troopers across four lanes of highway >> go home this march will not continue >> they were just beating people old, young, black, white male, female it didn't matter the last thing that i remember is seeing this horse and this lady he hit her and she fell. 54 years later, i can still hear the sound her head made when it hit that pavement. >> nobody with me deserved the brutality that we got that day after that day, the determination i had became triple >> future jgenerations have to know where we've been as a nation we've come a long, long way. we just have so far to go, we're not nearly where we need to be. >> we can create america to be what we want america to be i'm just interested in going into that space, of innovation and imagination and possibilities and promise. that's where i want to hang out. >> 54 years ago, this city changed the world. we gonna do it again >> i'm not going to lie. i'm concerned about the vote in 2020 in a 2019 study of electoral integrity, worldwide, the united states ranked lower than every other western democracy, due to restrictive election practices >> there is no moral issue it is wrong, deadly wrong, to deny any of your fellow americans the right to vote in this country >> more than six decades since president johnson signed the voter rights act, those words ring as true as ever protect each other protect our democracy. and in 2020, vote. ♪ we shall, we shall not be moved ♪ ♪ we shall, we shall not be moved just like the tree that's planted by the i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> we were going to work behind closed doors, after hours, wherever the case was. >> one of the most extraordinary cases in lapd history. >> toto, we're not in kansas anymore. >> a newlywed murdered just months after her wedding. >> as she walked away, she gave me a big smile and i
and yet -- and yet -- there was, still, so much suspense in it. i think the biden campaign kind of played and built the suspense perfectly. and i thought it was coming, and it was incredibly exciting news, when it came. >> that's absolutely right. there was no shock factor in kamala harris because it seemed like a rational choice and we all knew she was on the short list, such as it is. but it didn't leak. the only thing we heard about the vetting process with people associated with it at all, was that the vetting process seemed to be going well and it was intense. senator harris was chosen, in a way that led everybody else who had, apparently, been under consideration to, immediately, come out and praise the choice. i mean, as -- as a rollout goes, this is both smooth and wel well-executed. but step away from it and i think the handicapper strength that just -- this immeasurably. >> yeah, it really is. and we're going to have a lot of brilliant minds discussing this big day, in the next hour. >> great. thanks, lawrence. >> thank you, rachel. well, if vladimir putin and donald trump's postmaster general do not successfully interfere with our election process, 84 days from now, the united states of america is going to elect our first woman vice president of the united states. and on january 20th, california governor gavin newsom is going to have to appoint a new senator to take the senate seat of the newly-inaugurated vice president, kamala harris. california has been represented in the united states senate by two women, and women only, since 1993. almost 30 years. and so, it doesn't seem hard to predict that governor newsom will a woman to the united states senate seat, if it is vacated by a woman. one of the women, who the governor will, no doubt, consider for that appointment, will join us later in this hour. congresswoman katie porter of california. and before she became a woman of congress, law professor katie porter was hired to monitor banking practices in the state. the attorney general, at the time, who appointed katie porter was kamala harris. and here is how kamala harris reacted to what happened to her today. >> it was the lawrence o'donnell factor, there is no question about it. >> well, okay. that was, obviously, like, ten years ago when kamala harris was joking on this program about how she won her first statewide campaign in california for attorney general. she appeared on an election special that i hosted on the sunday before the tuesday election, in 2010. and that election special on msnbc was rerun three times. and that got her more statewide television coverage on that crucial, final weekend, than she could possibly have gotten from any appearance on local television in california. and so, when the final votes were counted, four full weeks after election day, and kamala harris won by less than 1% of the vote. she came on this program as the attorney general elect and delivered that joke that will have a permanent place in my greatest hits file. the longer you've been watching kamala harris, the less surprised you are about what happened today. i, first, heard about kamala harris from a friend of mine in california. a black woman, who told me i should go see kamala harris speaking at an event because i would be seeing the person, she called, the female obama. the first black, woman president. that was my introduction to kamala harris when she was still the district attorney of san francisco. and the first time i saw kamala harris speak, i, immediately, understood why people in california saw her as the female obama. and the next time i went to hear her speak, i brought my teenaged daughter with me because i wanted her to see and listen to a woman, who i believed, then, was going to take her place in history, on a much larger stage. other high-powered republican operatives, at that time, ten years ago, saw kamala harris exactly the same way. which is why carl rove worked very hard to defeat kamala harris in that first statewide campaign that she ran. and if carl rove could have just won one more percent of the vote. we would not be talking about kamala harris tonight. here is the way we ended that interview with kamala harris ten years ago. >> kamala harris, attorney general elect of california. thank you pour joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> and you are invited back on the program to announce your presidential campaign in 2016, as soon as you are ready to make that announcement for 2016. thank you very much. >> i'm ready to get to work as ag. thank you. >> thank you. >> she ran for senate in 2016, after senator barbara boxer announced that she would not run for re-election. kamala harris won 61% of the vote that time. she won 54 out of 58 counties in california. and she was, then, a proven vote-getter in the biggest state in the union. and she was perfectly positioned to spend eight years in the united states senate, gaining the governing experience and the resume credibility to run for president of the united states. but something happened the night that kamala harris was elected to the united states senate that was not supposed to happen. hillary clinton lost the electoral college. and so, the next opening to run for president was, suddenly, only four years away, not eight years away. and so, kamala harris was going to have to think about running for president, four years sooner than she would have if hillary clinton had won. and the weekend after she won her senate election. when the country was still reeling from the shock that donald trump was actually going to be the next president of the united states. i saw kamala harris has a cas l casual, breakfast restaurant in california. and she waved me over to her table from across the room. she was sitting at the community table with about ten other people, who she didn't know. she was with her husband. just the two of them. holding down a corner of this crowded, community table, at this crowded restaurant. where, oddly enough, no one seemed to know who she was. and as i got up from my table, i thought i was just going to go over and say hi. but as i crossed the room, i slipped back into senate-staff mode. i spent years on the staff in the united states senate advising on politics. but i found myself saying something to senator-elect harris, that i had never said to a senator before. i didn't tell her about the best committee assignments or how to work with republicans which didn't, yet, seem completely impossible, at the time. instead, i just said to her, you should run for president because the obama lesson is it's never too early. and the biden lesson is there is a second place. and she nodded. she didn't say anything. in reply to that. as is common with smart politicians. and i didn't expect a reply. senator kamala harris ran for president, on exactly the same schedule as senator barack obama. and took her first term on the presidential campaign debate stage in her third year as a united states senator. and then, today, after dropping out of the presidential race earlier than most of the major candidates, she came in second place. and is the democratic candidate for vice president of the united states. she did exactly what joe biden to become vice president. she set out to be president and, in the presidential campaign, she so impressed the winner of the presidential nomination, that he chose her as his vice presidential running mate. joe biden is a very careful man and a very careful politician. he tries to follow the best practices for professional politicians. and so, joe biden choose the united states senator as his running mate, as has every single democratic candidate for president since 1944. with the exception of, exactly, one, when walter mondell chose geraldine ferraro in a history-making choice in 1984. and so, every democrat who has actually won the vice-presidency since harry truman won the vice-presidency in 1994, has been a united states senator. and so, occupationally, joe biden made the safest and most conventional choice he could possibly make. on march 15th, joe biden told us he was going to select a woman as his vice presidential nominee if he won the nomination. but a week before that, joe biden told me something else about his choice of running mate. something else that was a very important factor. experience on the presidential debate stage. exactly, the kind of experience joe biden had before barack obama chose him as a running mate. >> in your experience, and i mean your lifetime of experience and choosing a running mate, do you think it's important to choose someone that actually has been tested on that debate stage? the way i assume that barack obama thought it was very important that his vice presidential candidate had already been telsted at that level, as you were, standing beside him on the debate stage. >> i think that's a very important factor. >> very important factor. and we're going to leave it at that today? >> okay. >> by the way, there's -- there's a number of women as well tested in other ways. not on the debate stage but in their debates in their states, and being national figures. so, you know, but, yes, i think that's an important factor. >> and so, combining that important factor with the established tradition of choosing senators as vice presidential candidates, joe biden's declaration that his running mate would be a woman. combining all of that, the likely possibilities quickly narrowed to kamala harris, senator elizabeth warren, and amy klobuchar. then, after george floyd was killed by police in senator klobuchar's home state of minnesota, senator klobuchar came on this program and made news revealing that she had call called joe biden and withdrew herself from consideration as a possible vice presidential running mate. and then, senator klobuchar said this. >> this is a historic moment. and america must seize on this moment. and i, truly, believe, as i actually told the vice president last night when i called him, that i think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket. and there are so many incredibly qualified women. >> senator amy klobuchar will be joining our discussion act thbo this historic moment tonight, when kamala harris has become the first woman of color to become a candidate for vice president of united states of america. and leading off our discussion act this historic moment are joy reid, msnbc national correspondent and host of "the readout." and zerlina maxwell, msnbc political analyst, she is the author of the new book "the end of white politics how to heal our liberal divide." joy reid, i told you. i told you one hour at 7:00 p.m. was not going to be enough for you. there were going to be these nights. there were gonna be these nights, where you were feeling more and you had more to say. and i'm just giving you the microphone. joy, go ahead. >> you did say that, lawrence. i appreciate it. it's great to be on with you, as always. and, look, i got to tell you. there is a coldplay song that goes, i'll take it back to the start, right? as you laid out, so brilliantly, in going through the record. the obvious choice from the very beginning of these veep stakes, as we call them, was kamala harris. we know senators tend to like other senators. of course, she's ready to be president on day one. it all made sense. and even as i traveled around during the primary, people would say, just regular people on the street. we think the ticket should be biden-harris. and this is when biden wasn't even anywhere close to being at the top. he was polling on the bottom, overall. and so, it shouldn't be surprising. but the amount of time it took to get back here where it felt like this probably started, i think, was excruciating for people. right? i mean, people, everyone i know, was in such agony. was so tormented over the last couple of weeks. you know, it was like agony just waiting for this decision to be made. and then, of course, biden did the smartest thing any politician can do, which is do the obvious thing. biden was the obvious pick for joe -- for barack obama. he was exactly what barack obama needed. and kamala harris is the -- maxing out the white, working-class vote. the most white, working-class votes you're going to get, he's getting them. he needs maximum enthusiasm. determination. he needs black women to not just give him 90% of their votes, but to come out, in record numbers, the way that they did for obama. and what gets you that? the opportunity to make history with a black woman. to put this black woman into the seat of power, in the center of power, black women will be in formation for this ticket. and that is the best news possible for joe biden. >> joy, i -- i don't know how obvious a choice joe biden was for barack obama because i actually lost a private bet about that with a friend of mine, who bet that it would be joe biden. and i bet against that choice. but i won today's bet, with that same person. it took me a long time. to -- to win that back. on the vp. zerlina maxwell, barack obama said that joe biden nailed this decision. he said he chose the ideal candidate. >> well, i think that he looked at kamala harris's performance in the primary, and said she stood up to me in the debate. she took it to me in the debate on substantive issues, and she's demonstrated that she can be the commander in chief, through that vetting process. but also, i think what he's saying is that i want to throw something back to those black voters that gave me the nomination in south carolina. and specifically, those black women, who are movement leaders, who are organizers, who are in the streets and doing the work. and this is a signal to them that he is listening. he said he wants to be a transitional figure to that emerging majority of people of color that this country is going towards. and i think that joe biden seized this moment, accurately. i, also, think that one of the things that we have to think about today is that, in 2016, the shock of that devastating defeat of hillary clinton. we, sometimes, forget that we didn't do the thing. we've never had a woman vice president or a woman president. and so, what joe biden did, today, does not only make history by selecting kamala harris to be his running mate. but he, also, set it up that the first woman president could be a black woman. and that is something that i am just, frankly, in awe of, at this moment. >> yeah. and, joy, what that lost i think in some of the discussion over the last little while, is that joe biden is -- is seen as a kind of -- as i say, he's a conservative-behaving politician. meaning, he will make the careful choice, all the time. >> yes. >> but, in his own, personal experience, let's remember, he has never run on a national ticket without a black running mate. >> that's right. that's right. that's right. i mean, first of all, if you live in north carolina right now, you already voted for joe biden, right? because he was on the ticket with the one -- the one democrat who could actually win north carolina in 2008. the black guy, right? so this combination of a white politician and black politician has been successful in gubernatorial races in new jersey, in michigan, et cetera. so we know that is a combination that has worked electorally. but if you think about this, for joe biden right now, this is also a sign that he listened. because, let's not forget that, there were activists, people who have been in the activism space for decades. people like melanie campbell. but also, people who are new to the eyes and ears of americans, like tasha brown and so the fact is that he heard this activism that was saying, it was a cry out from black women saying we have been carrying this party for decades. and getting very little in return. even kamala harris said that in one of the debates. and when activism -- it -- it challenges a white politician, of biden's generation, there's some times when you have seen politicians recoil from it. they have recoiled from those demands because they say i'm the expert here. i'm the expert politician. in this case, biden showed a maturity. there's age and there's a maturity. he showed maturity saying i can -- people making demands of me, like sunny hosten. he gets credit for that. but i also think the idea of having an hbcu grad, a member of a black sorority, these things have never happened. to let that person make this history, it feels so much richer and i think it's something biden can be very proud of. karine jean-pierre. haitian parents. child of immigrants. this is an extraordinary day. you know, no matter where your politics are, right or left or center, the democratic party has now, twice, made history on the most searing subject in american life, on the subject of race and racial inclusion. biden can be proud of what he's done tonight. >> zerlina, quickly, i got to get to commercial. but does this choice heal the liberal divide? >> well, i certainly think it demonstrates that joe biden understands what we are going towards. we're going towards an emerging majority of people of color, like kamala harris, who are going to use their lived experiences to make policy. that as ayanna pressley said puts people closest to the pain, next to the people in power. and that is the future. and that's really important and historic, to joy's point, i agree. and i think it's a really exciting day. >> joy reid and zerlina maxwell, i can't thank you enough for returning to television tonight because you have both been on this a lot, already, today. i really wanted to hear from you leading off this discussion for us tonight. really appreciate it. thank you, both. >> thank you, lawrence. >> thanks for having me. thank you. >> and up next, senator amy klobuchar withdrew from consideration as a possible running mate for joe biden and told joe biden that he should select a woman of color. amy klobuchar got her wish today, and she will join us, next. today, and she will join us, next customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? i should get a quote. do it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ we live with at&t and we are well past the honeocupado tom. at&t, what's this i hear about you advertising a 100% fiber network? only like a fraction of my customers can get that. that's it?!? you have such a glass half-empty attitude. the glass is more than half-empty! you need to relax tom. oh! tom, you need a little tom time. a little tt. stop living with at&t. xfinity delivers gig speeds to more homes than anyone. if donald trump loses the election, he has every right to fear he may be facing federal prosecutors in the southern district of new york. who, basically, named him as an unindicted co-conspirator in the michael cohen case, and are currently prevented from prosecuting him by a justice department memo, that says presidents should not face federal criminal prosecution. but now, donald trump is going to be facing a former prosecutor in the presidential campaign. >> we have a criminal living in the white house. and there is no question that, in 2020, the biggest issue before us, until we get to that tender moment, is justices on the ballot. >> after watching senator kamala harris on that debate stage with him, joe biden has decided kamala harris is going to be on that ballot. and joining us now is democratic senator amy klobuchar, from minnesota. senator, thank you, very much, for joining us tonight. and i just want to get your reaction. >> thanks, lawrence. >> you -- you came on this program. you said he should appoint -- choose a woman of color. you told him that on the phone. you must have seen this coming. you must have. >> well, first of all, i am just so excited for kamala, for her family. my husband and i are friends with her and her husband. and i talked to her today, and she's just going to be an incredible candidate. but most important, an incredible vice president to work, side by side, with joe biden to bring compassion and bring competence that we so badly need in the white house. so, yes, it is an historic moment. and your last guests did such a good job talking about that, in the historical context, where so many african-american women have really been, like the movie said, hidden figures, right? building rockets. doing great things. and finally, we have someone who is so talented on the ticket. but i really think we have to see it more than that. we have to look at her experience. and already saw the president go after her, randomly, on a bunch of things. and just his usual attacks with his bad words and nasty and the like. and i was on fox earlier and i said, you know what? when i think of aj djectives abt kamala, i think about someone who is strong. as you said earlier in the show, someone who has grit. someone who has empathy for people around her. and someone who is just very experienced, in foreign relations with her work on the intelligence committee. and certainly, as you began this segment, with justice. and that's what we need right now in washington, d.c. >> i want to show another clip of kamala harris as a presidential debater on the debate stage. she was up there with you. you'll remember all of these. and this is when she was talking about donald trump as a predator. and you -- you could hear that former prosecutor talking about this. let's listen to this. >> we have a predator living in the white house. donald trump has predatory nature and predatory instincts. and the thing about predators is this. by their very nature, they prey on people they perceive to be weak. they prey on people they perceive to be vulnerable. they prey on people who are in need of help, often desperate for help. and predators are cowards. >> when you were on the debate stage with her, were you, as a former prosecutor, yourself, looking over there and recognizing some of those courtroom moves? >> well, sure. i mean, she actually -- she was in charge of the biggest justice department in the country, the only one bigger is the justice department, itself. so, she supervisedng to the whie house. but she, also, understands a bad guy when sheeeonabout there. and you know, we continue to see this. we see someone who, instead of welcoming her to the race today, which would wibe a normal thing for a leader to do, goes after her. we see someone, i, alone, can fix this. and then, we see him, since the pandemic, doing nothing but blaming other people. and i think the fact that joe biden picked someone as strong as kamala harris is just going to bode well, not just for a ticket but for our country. >> i want to show another clip of senator harris on the presidential campaign debate stage. and this time, on foreign policy, as you mentioned. member of the intelligence committee. she has a much more solid grounding on this than, certainly, mike pence did four years ago when he was running vice president. >> he has conducted foreign policy, since day one, born out of a very fragile ego. that fails to understand that one of the most important responsibilities of the commander in chief is to concern herself with the security of our nation and homeland. >> senator, you know her range, obviously, on these -- on -- on the issues. what are you expecting that she will be kind of charged with, as vice president candidates often are, by the biden campaign over the next 80 days? >> well, i think she'll be going everywhere. she will go, certainly, virtually, many times, most of the time. but to the midwest. and i am looking forward to introducing her to the people of my state. she will be helping everywhere in the country, and i think that's really important. and i think what your clip got at was, of course, what she will be able to do what she's president. and he's going to need her help. we have a domestic crisis going on. and those first 100 days will be critical. working with the congress. something she has experience doing. but also, he will need her help in working with the rest of the world. and when i -- you keep showing those debate clips. i want to show -- i wanted you to show the ones which you don't have, of kamala in the back in those three-minute breaks before debates. huddling because it was too cold out there, and telling the technicians to turn the heat up. or figuring out if we were going to be able to make it to the bathroom in time and to get back. i think the other thing the nation is going to see is that she's someone who has a zest for life. she's someone who has a family she loves. and she is someone, who i am proud to call a friend. >> senator klobuchar, i want to thank you for joining us, once again, tonight. and i want to thank you for something else. i want to thank you for joining this democratic process that has produced this democratic ticket. because we all know that, as -- as competitors in athletics and elsewhere, competitors become better by facing stronger and better competitors. and i know that you helped make -- you helped make both of these candidates, joe biden and kamala harris, better candidates by being in that contest with them. thank you, very much, senator, for joining us again tonight. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. thanks, lawrence. >> thank you, senator. really appreciate it. up next, congresswoman katie porter began working with kamala harris when kamala harris -- when katie porter was a law professor and kamala harris was the attorney general of california. attorneys general are the most important consumer advocates in state government if they do their jobs correctly. we'll ask katie porter what kamala harris would bring to the white house, from her experience as attorney general. and we will see if katie porter would be interested in moving over to the senate, if kamala harris moves into the vice president's office. that's next. nt! because it's inanimate! 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during a democratic presidential debate in november of last year. her work for the people has included a major case in 2012, when attorney general of california, kamala harris, was negotiating a settlement with the nation's biggest banks over foreclosure misdeeds. kamala harris walked away from negotiations, when the banks offered, only, a $4 billion settlement. and she, ultimately, secured an $18 billion in a settlement for californians hurt by those banks. kamala harris appointed law professor, katie porter, of the university of california irvine. katie porter has worked closely with senator kamala harris on many legislative issues benefitting the state of california. joining us now is congresswoman katie porter, democrat, representing the 45th district of california. your reaction to a californian and a woman being on the ticket with joe biden? >> i'm incredibly excited to see senator harris receive this historic nomination. she is a fierce fighter for justice, for working families, and i am really excited about what this means for our country, going forward. i could not be happier tonight, to be able to celebrate this historic nomination and well-deserved spotlight on all that senator harris has done and all that she will do in upcoming years, to serve the american people. >> you know, i think a lot of voters aren't really aware of just how big the job of consumer advocate and protector is for state attorneys general, if they take that job seriously. tell us what you saw in kamala harris's work, in that office, as the state attorney general of the biggest state. that she will bring into the white house, that -- that can benefit consumers, in ways that they might not anticipate. >> attorneys general have an incredibly important role, particularly in a large state like california. the attorney general has very broad jurisdiction. so one of the things that i observed, just as a citizen of california during this time, was the degree to which kamala was grappling with all of the different kinds of problems and challenges that our state was facing. with regard to consumer protection and the mortgage settlement. the fraud, the scams, and foreclosures that were hurting california. s she showed incredible courage in standing up, not only to the big banks but, being willing to push her fellow attorney generals to push to get a deal from the big banks. justice isn't about what you announce in a press conference. it's about the real change that you deliver in people's lives. and that was the work that i am honored that she tasked me to help do. to deliver change in people's lives, really helping them keep their homes or get help. >> if vladimir putin and the postmaster general and donald trump do not succeed in stealing this election, the polls tell us that kamala harris will be vice president of the united states, on january 20th, which means california is going to need a new appointed senator. appointed by the governor. are you available? are you interested in moving across the capitol grounds to the united states senate? >> well, it's really flattering from you, lawrence, as a longtime senate staffer, to ask that question. you know what it takes to serve in the u.s. senate. but i will tell you there's so much work to be done in the house. our country is in crisis. economic crisis. people are worried about their health. i have a very competitive race on my hands in orange county. and i am working really hard to listen to the people of orange county and california and of this country. and i'm very, very excited to be helping to elect the historic vice president of kamala harris and joe biden as our next president. >> what would you say that you've seen of kamala harris, that we haven't, yet, seen in the presidential campaign that she participated in, so far? what -- what might we see that we haven't, yet, seen? >> well, i think that you're going to see that she's very fierce. she's willing to do battle. you know, when she ran for the attorney general was fearless for the people. and she really is. she takes that mantel of public service very, very seriously. and i think that you'll see the depth of knowledge and the depth of commitment that she has to trying to right wrongs, as she goes about campaigning and talking about the state that president trump is leaving our country in. >> congresswoman katie porter, thank you very much for joining us on this historic night. really important to have you join us. thank you. >> thank you. >> and when we come back, white house correspondent and presidential campaign veteran and white house staff veteran, will join us to discuss what kamala harris will bring to the campaign and what republicans will try to throw at her. e campaign and what republicans will try to throw at her defens. it neutralizes bacteria for a healthier mouth than even the leading multi-benefit toothpaste. crest. can leave you holding your breath. ♪ but bristol myers squibb is working to change 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highest levels of leadership should be in the business of unifying our country, not dividing our country, and as far as i'm concerned, we've got a president who is not trying to make america great. he's trying to make america hate and we need to get rid of him. >> that was senator kamala harris on the presidential campaign trail in south carolina last year. joining our discussion now, white house correspondent for pbs news hour, and msnbc political analyst. and former white house communications director for president obama and for hillary clinton's presidential campaign. jennifer's new book is "she proclaims, our declaration of independence from a man's world." yamish, what are you expecting the trump campaign to throw at kamala harris? >> well, the trump campaign and the president have started talking about the president saying they see her as radical left. they talk about her stances when it comes to immigration, to fracking, that she's going to abolish the police. the thing that's interesting here is the trump began their attacks with a misleading statement. they said that kamala harris called joe biden a racist, and she never did that. she also never called for abolishing the police as a former prosecutor. what's interesting here is that there are black lives matter protesters who are looking at her as a prosecutor saying maybe she isn't progressive enough. the other thing we should note is the president just in a few minutes of a briefing called her nasty three times, using that really gendered word to describe her. saying she was disrespectful to justice kavanaugh and joe biden. so we can expect the trump campaign to be dirty in this fight, but that's part of why president trump's supporters like him. they like his brash band of politics. we'll have to see if it works out this time. >> let's take a look at the ad karl rove used to try to stop kamala harris ten years ago. my son was killed in the line of duty with an ak-47 by a gang member. >> even before his burial, kamala harris refused to seek the death penalty against his killer. tell kamala harris, california's worst criminals deserve the toughest punishment the law allows, no exceptions, no excuses. >> jennifer, we're going to see more of that. >> right. and you saw two things happen today, on the trump side. they did the ad where they called phony kamala and sleepy joe. phony is a very gender term that we use to present women with -- women in power in an unfavorable light, right? there's something fake about them, there's something they're hiding, there's something suspicious about them. it's a very old trope. you saw trump go down the nasty, nasty woman sort of rabbit hole, as he did with hillary. and there are some times where trump or his campaign staff can be disciplined and effective in the way that they attack their political opponents and there are some times where trump goes into a gas fire roll. he starts off calling her nasty and mean, that is not a disciplined attack. it is not very pleasant for kamala harris, but i don't know that that is going to be effective for him. she is prepared. the biden campaign is prepared. they know that they're coming after her, in particular, and trying to make her the face of the radical left. there will be sexist tropes against her, too. a lot of people have been planning in and outside of the biden campaign to have her back and fight back this time. >> bernie sanders is going to be very surprised to discover that kamala harris is the most liberal member of the united states senate, according to donald trump tonight. yamiche alcindor, jennifer, stay right there. we need to squeeze in one more commercial and when we come back we'll show more of what to expect for kamala harris as she runs for vice president of the united states. find your keys. find your get-up-and-go. find pants that aren't sweats. find your friends. find your sense of wander. find the world is new, again. at chevy we'd like to take you there. now during the chevy open road sales event, get up to 15% of msrp cash back on select 2020 models. that's over fifty-seven hundred dollars cash back on this equinox. it's time to find new roads, again. - hey. - [narrator] she takes two prescriptions. kate's son jack, takes one too. kate works hard, and thought she had good insurance. but she still pays too much. that's no good. so kate downloaded the goodrx app. now she can compare prescription prices, to find the best discounts. she even beats her insurance price. good for you kate, good for you. goodrx, stop paying too much for your prescriptions. download the free app today. here is more of what donald trump is going to be facing in the remaining 84 days of the presidential campaign. >> he has committed crimes in plain sight. i mean, it's shocking, but he told us who he was. listen to somebody when they tell you who they are the first time. donald trump told us that he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and get away with it. he has been selling out the american people, the working people, our values, national security. he has been selling out our democracy. donald trump needs to be held accountable. he is, indeed, the most corrupt and unpatriotic president we have ever had. >> back with us, yamiche alcindor and jennifer palmier. what is it with donald trump and nasty? i've seen him throw that word directly at you in white house press briefings many times. why does he keep doing it? does he think that's the word that won him the presidency? >> i think, in part, it's that he is dog whistling, as crit beings would say, to his base, who maybe sees women as part of the problem. that's what critics of president trump would say. i also think there's another part of him that is objective, that he is someone to likes to get personal. he called her mean, disrespectful. he went after her character, also called her a liar which, of course, is really somewhat ironic coming from president trump, because he has been someone who has misled and said so many things that are not true. he started off by really trying to go personal with senator harris. i sat down with senator harris a couple of times. one thing she told me is that her mom, when she would get into mix ups at school, she would say what did you do? she wouldn't coddle her of the she wanted her to understand the power she had. those clips there is senator harris showing i have power. joe biden wants her to prosecute the case against donald trump and that's what we're going to see in the lead-up to november. >> jennifer, as a campaign professional, i want you to give us a score of how the biden campaign handled this rollout and that final reveal of the vice presidential candidate. >> i think it's been great, right? people are amazed that it didn't leak and, you know, the thing is, though, the only person who could leak is joe biden, because it's not until he actually picks up the phone and makes that phone call to kamala harris and says we're done. it's not really done. they managed to get through pretty public process. but we feel like coming out of that process, democrats feel like they got the best candidate. they got the woman who is ready to be president on day one, most important thing. they got someone who is going to round out the ticket and help in terms of politically. it shows a level of maturity on biden in making his selection. i want to see them as a team now. if i worked for the biden campaign, i would be very aware of the fact that in the next six days between now and the start of the democratic convention, the trump campaign is going to try to paint her as the radical left and have that attack stick to her in a way it hasn't to biden. and here is a new team. there's something when the two parts come together and create a new vision, you see like the two generations together, that's going to be powerful. i want to see it over and over again, the two of them together. >> and the biden/harris campaign has that on the schedule for tomorrow. they will appear together tomorrow afternoon. thank you both for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it. thank you. and that is tonight's "last word." "the 11th hour with brian williams" starts now. well, good evening. once again, day 1300 of the trump administration. 84 days to go until our presidential election, and 57 days to go until the vice presidential debate between mike pence and kamala harris, which nicely brings us to our lead story tonight, a big enough story to displace the pandemic at the top of this broadcast. barring disaster, the democratic ticket will be biden/harris. the 55-year-old california senator will appear with joe biden tomorrow in delaware, as close to each other as the cdc allows. the announcement came electronically this afternoon. the secret held while biden
of looting and unrest. kathy park is live in chicago with the latest. kathy, what are you seeing there? >> hey, garrett, good afternoon to you. so the demonstrators are gathering right now about seven miles away from where we are. and we are actually told from law enforcement officials that if this crowd doesn't grow to about 500, they're actually not going to be let on to the dan ryan expressway, one of the major expressways here in the city. we're still monitoring the situation there. but here is where we are. this is michigan avenue. and just over to my left is the magnificent mile where just a couple of days ago, looters ransacked a lot of these high-end stores, and a lot of these businesses are still boarded up. so the city is very much on edge, and officials have vowed to take back the city and really crack down on any sort of looting and crime that might actually occur. these protesters actually are saying that they are revolting police brutality. and that is the purpose of this event. but the trigger for the looting, according to police, happened sunday night. there was a shooting of a 20-year-old man and allegedly there was a lot of misinformation and rumors that spread on social media and then it spiraled out of control and led to the looting here. we had a chance to hear from the police superintendent not too long ago. here is a warning he had for would-be looters today. take a listen. >> the men and women of the chicago police department will do everything we can to protect the safety and first amendment rights of peaceful protesters. but what happened last week downtown and on the west side had nothing to do with protest or peace. the community continues to speak out loudly and clearly to looters. not in our city. not in our town. you can run, but you can't hide. >> reporter: and city officials have really laid out this strategy, this tough strategy on fighting crime in the city after this recent spike in looting. so, you might hear the bells chiming behind me. a lot of these bridges here in chicago have been lifted to limit the flow of traffic. this is one of the many strategies put in place in the city. another plan they put in place is to monitor social media. the rumors that spread online a couple of days ago, which may have triggered the looting, according to police, was spawned on social media. there is a task force that will be watching that closely. garrett, this is very much a tense situation and, obviously, the city would be packed this time of year. this kind of walking up and down this busy corridor, it's pretty empty. garrett? >> kathy park keeping an eye on things for us in chicago this afternoon. kathy, thank you. now to new details on changes inside the postal service that the agency says may lead to ballots not being counted in time for the november election. procedures implemented by mr. dejoie, ally and donor to president trump. a decision to remove mailboxes from towns across the country. >> i saw the collection boxes on facebook yesterday being taken off the street, just like other people did. so as these changes are being made it's not something we're being made aware of in the offices. it's changes we're being told about the day that they're happening. >> these changes are now fueling fears around the country that slower service by the postal service may contribute to voter suppression in the election. this is something that speaker pell owesy has been very outspoken about. a short time ago, she slammed the president again for these moves, calling them sabotage. bring us up-to-date, josh, and tell us what's happening now. >> reporter: whether the post office would be ready for all of these ballots has been a theatrical issue looming in the background of these negotiatings of the now, garrett, it's much more urgent and front and center in light of the letters that the usps have been sending to states around the country, warning they may not be able to get those ballots returned for processing in time. we're hearing from nancy pelosi on this, as democrats are seizing on this as a new campaign message. given the very high popularity of the post office around the count country. pelosi saying in a letter to house democratic colleagues that before our eyes, president trump is openly working to destroy the post office and sabotage its ability to deliver absentee ballots in time to be counted. she said that democrats will continue to fight for funding for the postal service and safe and fair elections for our democracy. as far as those negotiation on a deal that would extend covid relief and potentially add funding for the post office and elections, garrett, not a lot of signs of optimism. making clear in that same letter that democrats are not backing off of their position, that they're only willing to go back to the negotiating table if the white house is willing to go up about a trillion dollars from what the white house had been previously offering. white house and president trump making clear they're not willing to go that far at this point. as far as the president, he has been up this morning, tweeting from his golf course in bedminster where he is spending the weekend. a series of tweets from republican national committee spokespeople, making question ybl and in some cases false claims about dead people voting, massive fraud elections, things like that. the president adding in a retweet that the democrats know the 2020 election will be a fraudulent mess. we'll maybe never know who won. of course, that possible fraudulent mess that the president is talking about is exactly what democrats say they're trying to invert by infusing the post office with another $25 billion of funding and several additional billion for state resources as well. another reminder of how far the two sides are apart at this moment. >> always striking to see the president undermining we'll never know who won an election now just under 80 days away. josh lederman, thank you. the four-day event of the democratic national convention will be very different this year than anything we've seen in the past. the first presidential convention to be completely virtual. several prominent democrats are slated to give video speeches until joe biden accepts the nomination on thursday. congresswoman gwehn moore. what can we expect to see? no one has ever seen a convention quite like this before. >> well, you know, i'm not on the production end of it, but one thing i gather, it's still going to be very fabulous. i think that given the upside of all of this is that i think delegates will be able to participate in ways that perhaps they would not have been able to participate had they actually come to a convention in person. and that is, they'll be able to not only watch all the luminaries speak for the four nights but will be able to attend training academies and how to get the vote out, attend the caucuses, like the equality caucus or the his ppanic caucusr the women's caucus, and where they might have had to travel from a hotel that was some distance from the area, we'll be able to see each other and go from zoom to zoom and literally gather virtually. and so i do think it's almost like a pay per view event. people here are geared up to watch tv monday night. and then, as you mentioned, there will be so many luminaries. i'm sure they'll be watching monday night to see me and not michelle obama. >> i'm sure you'll both be viewer draws, congresswoman. let me ask you, it's not an accident this convention was supposed to be in wisconsin, a state that hillary clinton lost by fewer than 30,000 votes. the idea is to generate enthusiasm in a swing state. do you lose any of that by the convention not being physically present in wisconsin, or do you think you could still get that traditional bump you might otherwise see? >> nothing like sitting down and having a brat and beer and some of our cheese kurds, there's no substitute. that being said we are going to try to set table for re-establishing democratic values in this country and what a better place to do it than in milwaukee. this is the place where people died for the eight-hour workday, shed blood. this is the place where the fugitive slave law was challenged. joshua glover fled from missouri, was captured and put into prison by federal marshalls being and 5,000 milwaukeeans stormed the jail in 1860 and freed him. it's the place of one the first states that ratified the 19th amendment for women. when you think about the core values -- we have a diverse population. our native folks. we've women comed new imgrnts here. we're going to try to give them a little bit of flavor of milwaukee and what it means toward reek connect the american values. we've seen a major disconnect over the past three and a half years. >> there is nothing that prevents you from having a brat and a beer watching the convention from your home, to our viewers. the selection of kamala harris to be joe biden's running mate, first black woman vice presidential nominee, historic in any number of ways. how important was that selection nationally but in a place like milwaukee, what does her ex-to those folks? >> i can tell you, to the extent it's been possible to socially distance, identify been out on the street and met with regular people and they are very, very thrilled it's kamala harris. i tend to look at it at the way that donna edwards, former congressman for maryland, you thought it didn't matter and then it happened. i think it just raised the excitement to that level as well. kamala is a black woman. of course, that is the most loyal constituency of the democratic party. she's also somebody we're so proud of. she is so smart and as a member of the congressional black caucus, i know that she cares about stuff that really matters very deeply to many folks who have been left behind. i mean, she cares about child care. she cares about stuff that single moms, who have never been at the table, care about. and she's partnering up with joe biden and all of his misfortune, being a single dad and being bereaved. he gets it, what it really takes to keep, understand. so ware excited at having minimum wage being at least 15 bucks an hour, income tax credit, having family-friendly policies as well as criminal justice reforms and many of the things that we're going to talk about on monday night when we have senator bernie sanders take the stage. i think that our platform committee is going to demonstrate the big impact that he has had. and kamala is somebody who could actually help him execute these things. i mean, her competence, her brilliance and, yeah, her blackness, are all very helpful. >> congresswoman gwenn moore, i feel like you're testing out your speech lines on us. thank you for joining us this morning. appreciate it. >> i'm just excited. >> i can tell. next week msnbc will have special live coverage of the dnc every night monday through thursday starting at 7:00 eastern right here on msnbc. and now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic, texas is now the fourth state in the u.s. to surpass 10,000 covid-related deaths as a stark new forecast from the cdc predicts the u.s. death toll could reach 200,000 by labor day. 170,000 americans have died. in georgia, governor brian kemp is expected to sign an executive order today, allowing some local governme governments to impose a mask manda mandate, days after he dropped a lawsuit against atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms. it will allow them to enforce mask mandates if they meet health metrics. canada extended the u.s. ban until at least september 1st. in new jersey, big win for the teachers union. schools can begin to choose the semester with all remote learning, major reversal for governor murphy, who originally asked all schools to offer some form of in-person option. cory kaufman joins me from elizabeth, new jersey. what does this mean for individual school districts? >> reporter: yeah, there's a lot of planning that has to move forward now, garrett. there was a lot of consideration for this development. the government looking at recent spike in cases after they flattened the curve. the spike in children getting the virus, 90% spike after the past two weeks and seeing how it's been done in other states, in schools reopening and covid cases just coming forward, making these schools have to close once again. a lot of factors were taken into consideration for this lastest change. of course, this is seen as a step in the right direction for the state teachers union as well as local teachers unions. i spoke with some who said this week this was very heavy on their hearts. it is a life and death situation, quite literally. listen to their stories. >> she looked at my chart and she said stay home. so i let the doctor make my decision. >> during the summer a life had been changing event happened with a family member who lives in my home. they became sick and is considered immune compromised. >> i have a 6-year-old son that was born with a con jental heart defect. we had considered making him stay with my parents while i worked but then i found out that the district was offering the medical accommodation and i applied for it, and i was supported. >> yeah, for teachers like toni, it could truly mean bringing the virus home, and that could be fatal for her son. it was just not an option. and if the districts did not have this option to go virtual, many of them would have to either retire, they would have to quit or possibly go on leave, further complicating the issue. let me just say, garrett, this is not a 100% reversal of the governor's original order, rather something in the middle. he is still requiring districts to have a plan moving forward. they have to prove that they do not have enough ppe or ventilation to open and that's why they have to go virtual. then they have to give a plan as to how they will move forward and a set date for reopening, garret. >> cori coffin for this afternoon, thank you. rise of kamala harris. he worked with her for 15 years. what he has to say about their time as a prosecutor may change some of the headlines you've been seeing. i'll talk to him next. seeing. i'll talk to him next. 1 in 2 kids is underhydrated. if your child doesn't seem themself at times, they may not be hydrated enough. wabba wabba! all new, plant powered creative roots gives kids the hydration they need, with the fruit flavors they love, and 1 gram of sugar. find new creative roots in the kids' juice aisle. find your get-up-and-go. find pants that aren't sweats. find your friends. find your sense of wander. find the world is new, again. at chevy we'd like to take you there. now during the chevy open road sales event, get up to 15% of msrp cash back on select 2020 models. that's over fifty-seven hundred dollars cash back on this equinox. it's time to find new roads, again. webut you can't lose sight of your own well-being 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convention, she and joe biden sign papers to appear on the ticket in all 50 states at the time of america's reckoning with police. here is what harris said about this issue back in june. >> a big part of this conversation really is about reimagining how we do public safety in america, which i support, which is this. we have confused the idea that to achieve safety you put more cops on the street instead of understanding to achieve safe and healthy communities you put more resources into the public education of those communities, affordable housing, home ownership, access to capital for small businesses, access to health care, regardless of how much money people have. >> i'm joined by two people who have known kamala harris far longer than most of us, long before she came on to the national stage. pa we're joined by paul henderson and seema meadow from the national times who covered her from years. paul, the senator harris you just heard there, is that the same kamala harris you knew as a prosecutor? >> it is even before she was elected as the district attorney. she's been talking about reforming the justice system. she's been talking about an inclusionary agenda. she's been talking about dis disenfranchised folks and representing them. and that's part of the reason why she has done the work that she's done and part of the reason why i've always had an outstanding career working alongside of her and been honored to work with her. she's an upright person who is really focused as a black woman on reforming our justice system. so, yeah, that is reflective of who she is and her stage is expanding now for more people to know about her record and more people to know about her work, and more people to know about her commitment. and i think those are all things that are going to inspire the democratic ticket and hopefully things that will inspire people to vote and support to make a change. so, yeah, i'm excited. >> seema, as you've seen senator harris come up as a prosecutor, give me your perspective as a journalist, how do you think she has refined her positions on criminal justice issues? >> she has evolved over the years but so has the country. >> sure. >> in terms of how we view accountability, race relations, that kind of thing. if you look at her record overall, she speaks about how she wanted to change the decision from the inside, a decision she made to try to make things better. she has critics on the left and the right. some people would argue she did not do enough when she was in office for office-involved shootings, providing cameras, having to do with race relations for treatment of underrepresentative communicates. she definitely made some steps and had innovative programs, she is not without critics who said she could have done more. >> given that this is her background, her specialty is criminal justice, how do you see senator harris walking this line between supporting police and supporting the police reform movement in i think she's going to face more scrutiny, perhaps, than a nominee who didn't come from that same background. >> more scrutiny but i don't think she could be more clear on what her approach is and perspective is in terms of being smart on crime. you look back at her speeches, her presentation, even at congress at c-span in 2006 when she was talking about what justice reforms look like, those things speak for themselves about what her commitment is in wanting to change things, as do the programs that she ran, as do her initiatives that she ran in leadership positions, as district attorney and attorney general and, i will say one of the things that we worked closely with that stands out is her increase of diversity into the prosecutor's office by over 85%. and so bringing people in, specifically women and people of color, communities of color to the decision-making table makes a difference. those are records and these are just facts. you don't get to argue with that history as it exists, and those are the kinds of inclusionary agendas i think she's going to bring to the white house that people are excited about, especially some of our most powerful blocks on the democratic party, which is black women. i will say this is coming at a time right now that it is more important than ever that we talk about those issues in reforming our justice system while this administration has rolled back and attacked many of the civil rights. again, these are just facts. this administration has cut the civil rights division and the department of justice to less than half of what it was from the previous administration. that's a problem. this is the area that focuses on the pattern and practice evaluations for police this is the area that focuses on the law enforcement reform in our country and that division has shrunk. this is what we need to face and this is what i'm excited about. yes? >> it's a good point. personnel is policy, who you choose to hire and whose voices you elevate are absolutely part of your policy. seema, how does that play on the left? some folks in the primary especially were distrustful of harris as a senator, based on her background as a prosecutor. >> i think you do still hear critics talk about it this isn't 2016 n 2016 we had such a sharp difference between hillary clinton and her supporters. people have come along a little more easily. i don't know if it's because bernie sanders and joe biden decided to put their difference as side much earlier and it wasn't quite as intense between them. some critics, talking to voters in the early states, all last year, priority number one was who can beat president trump, and for democratic voters if they think joe biden believes that kamala harris is the best addition to his ticket to do that, they'll stick behind him 100%. >> we'll all get to know kamala harris a lot better. nice to have two people who know her well this afternoon. paul, seema, thank you very much. two college football conferences decide to cancel all their games. how that could spell trouble for the president this fall. troublr the president this fall. the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. so, when you get a check... you can deposit it from here. and you can see your transactions and check your balance from here. you can save for an emergency from here. or pay bills from here. so when someone asks you, "where's your bank?" you can tell them: here's my bank. or here's my bank. or, here's my bank. because if you download and use the chase mobile app, your bank is virtually any place. visit chase.com/mobile. the coronavirus is sidelining two of the college football powerhouses, big 10 and pac-12 announcing they will not play in the fall. ohio state football spotlighted in "the new york times," saying the cancellation reverberated across ohio where the buckeyes football program looms not just large but culturally enormous. some voters blame president trump's handling of the virus. ohio democratic congresswoman enjoys beatty, former senior vice president of outreach and engagement at the ohio state university. congresswoman, i want to ask first, what was your reaction to the big ten's decision? people had strong feelings with this. did you agree with it? >> yes, i certainly agreed with it. i thought that the ohio state university and all the administration, the board, put health and safety first, and that has to be the thing we think of. certainly we understand the economic impact this will have, but we still have schools that are not opening. we still have in this great state of ohio 12 165,000 people dying across the country, some 3,000 and 4,000 people dying right here in ohio and especially african-americans dying at a disproportionate rate. i think they made the right decision. i think that ohio state has positioned themselves to always put the students first, to put the family and the faculty first. maybe if we would have had an earlier start by this administration on doing things at a national level, we may have been able to have flattened the curve, but that did not happen. so, here we are. but i salute ohio state for putting the safety of all of those students, all of the families and the faculty in the forefront. >> look at those pictures of packed stadiums, it just feels like a different lifetime. >> yes. some 100,000 people attend. so when you think of the amount of money that football brings into state and local government, the small businesses that will be affected, while i support it, it certainly will be devastating to us. >> right. what does that do not just in columbus, but i'm thinking of ann arbor, state college and all of these college towns where, you know, those couple of saturdays in the fall are such a huge part of the economy. >> absolutely. it also means that state and local government also take a hit. maybe the message should also be to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that we need to implement the hero's act. we need to make sure that we come back to work about put those dollars back into state and local government, that we put funds in for essential workers and all those small businesses who are in those cities of the big ten will certainly be affected when you think of restaurants, bars and all the essential workers, when you think of uber, lyft, nail salons and paragraphber shops. they'll take a huge hit with this. and so we'll have a responsibility to pitch in and do our part. >> the idea that football could be the way that so many people wake up to this or approach this pandemic differently, i think, is an interesting issue. that "new york times" article that i mentioned, they point out in crucial battleground states like ohio, michigan and pennsylvania, where college football serves as an autumn religion norkts just on campus but in the rural areas where mr. trump's support runs the deepest, what do you think, congresswoman shall do you think the president takes a hit on this? you mentioned at the top that certainly he has some responsibility for it. do you think his supporters will connect the loss of football with the administration's response? >> i'm not sure how many of his supporters will, but i am certain some, those who are devastated because football is their first versus health or safety versus wearing a mask, or looking at the data, as i look at it and others. i think they'll be disappointed. i think they'll be upset. if that affects the president and those who are now not going to support him, so be it. he should have been more engaged. he should have been more in the forefront and here we are. i am proud of ohio state and the decision as well as all of those in the big ten. you just have to put health and safety first. >> absolutely. tough call for everybody involved. congresswoman, thank you so much. coming up, the voting group that could determine the outcome of the election and how those voters are leaning right now. e voters a lreeaning 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have a parasitic infection, or your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. could you be living a bigger life? ask an asthma specialist about fasenra. could you be living a bigger life? and mine's unlisted.. try boost® high protein... -with 20 grams of protein for muscle health- -versus only 16 grams in ensure® high protein. and now enjoy boost® high protein in new café mocha flavor. now to decision 2020, 80 days to election day and the reaction to kamala harris as his veep pick. here is what former president barack obama said about the choice. >> he chose somebody who would be prepared on day one to assume the presidency in the event that that was necessary. he chose somebody who is experienced at just about every level of government. >> joining me now, former california senator barbara boxer, host of the boxer podcast and la tasha brown, co-founder of black votes matter. you said something interesting on yahoo!'s skull duggery podcast, that harris should apologize for her prosecutorial record if she believes she erred in the past. do you think she erred? do you think her record as a prosecutor then could be political badge npolitic al agoa al baggage now? >> no. that was taken out of context, what you just read. we all evolve, every one of us. i, myself, have said many times at the moment, for example, i'll give you my story, after 9/11, i voted to set up the department of homeland security. i never realized a president like donald trump, who whoa pray is an anomaly, would use that department as his own private militia. so you evolve. you just tell the people. that's it. she's terrific. she has won several times in california. we have 40 million people. they all had different ideas. nobody agrees with everybody on everything. and she knows how to walk am people's shoes. you don't win in california if you can't take your message across the entire state. we are so diverse. >> yeah. that's a good point. i want to bring you in, latasha, on that question of evolution. if you were running as the vice president, on the top of the ticket's policies but you are running on your record. how should former prosecutor harris acknowledge, talk about her time as a prosecutor running in today's democratic party? >> no, i think that senator harris has a unique opportunity to be a transformative leader. now in the light of what's happening in the uprisings in all 50 states, there were people who were standing up against police brutality and calling for a reformation, complete reformation of the justice system. she has a unique opportunity to literally be on the forefront as a leader that actually has learned from her days as a prosecutor, has actual ly heede to the call of people asking for something different, asking for a complete rehaul of our criminal justice system and really crack down on police brutality that's been inflicted on our communities. i think she and vice president biden had that opportunity. just as senator boxer said, you can always win evolution. i think people are looking for that. people who are supporting her, supporting this ticket are also expecting that, and i'm looking forward to seeing this kind of evolution as we go forward. >> let's talk about that opportunity, you mentioned. we're learning a little bit about how the biden campaign wants to deploy senator harris. the washington post is reporting that the campaign plans to send her to swing states at times in person, at times virtually, to connect with young activists and suburban women. i'm wondering how you think she can help the ticket appeal it those groups and to the broader electorate, beyond what we just discussed. >> i think part of what is important is people have moved from the days of having a candidate. people want an aenda. we're in the largest pandemic health crisis in the last 100 years, 30 million people without employment right now. you have health care in the middle of this health crisis. folks don't have adequate health care, and their hospitals are closing. folks want to hear, what is the agenda? what is going to be the agenda that this ticket is going to push to take americans forward, to undo the damage that donald trump and the administration has done but also what are we going to create that is a new radical vision for america going forward that centers working class people, poor people and the very people who have made this country what it is that we actually have an agenda to make sure that we're lifting them. >> pard mon me. it's tough on these digit al interviews. senator barbara boxer, take a listen. i have a question after this. >> it's hilarious she is being called a moderate, joe biden has found a fellow moderate or centrist. she supported something very close to medicare for all. she's for the green new deal and has one of the most liberal records in the u.s. senate. >> i found this interesting. the trump campaign has tried to paint senator harris as a wildly left liberal and as a secret undercover cop, but i wonder if the flip side of that coin for the biden campaign allows them to say, look, joe biden is running as a moderate democrat, but he has also got this liberal progressive voice on the ticket with them. how do you see them playing her record in the senate, which is more progressive than the vast majority of other senators, as a positive for the biden campaign and a potential weapon for the trump campaign? >> here is what i think. we start getting into this liberal, conservative, moderate. guess what the ticket is about. it's about making life better for people. you cannot pick kamala as an ideologue. she's just not. she may be for this bill, that bill or voted for one or the other. she's kamala harris. she's going to try to make life better for people. frankly, i think it's the same as joe. i've worked with joe on so many important issues that were quite progressive, but he appeals to a broad array of people. and i think kamala does too. taking it back to california, i ran four times state wide, won four times. very tough. very large state. it's like a country. and you have to walk in everybody's shoes, and kamala has done that, regardless of the color of your skin or who you worship, or what your zip code is. you have to, in order to win in california, you have to understand everybody, from farmer's to entrepreneurs to silicon valley, to the entertainment industry. it goes on and on. so he can send her everywhere. she's not an ideologue. as stated, joe and kamala will have a very clear platform. we are living in donald trump's america and it is a disaster. people are hungry. they're starving. they're frightening. >> that's right. >> and they want justice. >> that's right. >> this ticket is going to be very hopeful. >> senator, thank you for mentioning that. one of the things that appeal to the biden team about senator harris was her campaign experience. a lot of people think about that as her time running the presidential campaign but you make the point her time running in california is also incredit ebly valuable to them. >> yes. >> we could talk about this for the next 80 days. i suspect we will resume this conversation at some point. for now, we're moving on. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, one doctor's effort to keep track of every health care worker lost to covid-19 and her fight to better protect the people still fighting on the front lines. your home and auto when you bundle with us. -keep it coming. -you don't know him. so when it comes to screening for colon cancer, don't wait. because when caught early, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'm on it. that's a step in the right direction. (. the pandemic for me has been mentally and emotionally exhausting. not knowing if you are going to bring it home to your family, to your loved ones, because for me i take care of my grandmother and my grandfather on a daily basis. you never know what you are going to bring home. >> front line medical workers have been putting their own health at risk treating coronavirus patients during this pandemic. but their sacrifices aren't being officially documented. that's why when one doctor realized no one was accurately tracking health care workers who died she started cataloging those deaths herself. doctor, you did this with just a twitter account. what made you realize at first there was a discrepancy here? why did you decide to start do this? >> well, i initially started it as a way of managing my own feelings and emotions about the pandemic. it's something i had done in residency in medical school, keep track of my patients who had died. at the end of each year i would sort of release those names and say a prayer for them and relieve myself of that emotional burden. so i started keeping track of health care workers as well, because i was also scared of the pandemic. and then in mid-april, the cdc came out with their first official status on how many health care workers had passed from covid. i believe their thnumber was abt 27. at that time, i had over 150 names. so i realized there was a big discrepancy in what they were counting and what i was able to find just googling people. >> where do you think that discrepancy came from? why do you think your number was so much different are the cdc's? >> i am not entirely sure why it is so different other than maybe nobody really wants to know. i know that the cdc collection form lists four occupations for health care workers and one more that just says other. you have to have somebody who knows that the patient is a health care worker to fill that out. >> do we need to standardize this? i mean, do we need to make this something that's uniformly reported, people's occupyings, the folks who do test positive, or worse, pass away because of this virus? >> yeah, i think that would be helpful. if you don't know who is getting sick, you can't figure out why they are getting sick. and then you can't prevent them from getting sick. >> for the folks listening on sat leigh light radio, the account is @ctzebra. what are you hearing from people? i imagine there must be an outpouring every time you tweet? >> it has actually been a very positive response. i have heard from some family workers or coworkers of some of the people that i have posted. they have been relieved that their family member is being recognized for their sacrifice. >> doctor, thank you very much for your service. both as a doctor and for keeping track of this on twitter for us. that's going to do it for today's edition of weekend with alex with it. i'm garrett haake. i will see you again tomorrow at noon eastern. up next, why cutback at the u.s. post office may be effect if a the health of u.s. veterans. - [narrator] did you just reward yourself for spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub? grubhub's gonna reward you for that with a $5 off perk. 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(fireworks exploding) when you're affected by schizophrenia, you see it differently. it's in the small, everyday moments. and in the places, you'd never expect. a little sign of hope. the feeling of freedom. and once these little moments start adding up, that's when it feels like so much more. it feels like real progress. caplyta effectively treats adults with schizophrenia. and it's just one pill, once a day, with no titration. caplyta can cause serious side effects. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles or confusion, which can mean a life-threatening reaction or uncontrollable muscle movements which may be permanent. dizziness upon standing, falls, and impaired judgment may occur. most common side effects include sleepiness and dry mouth. high cholesterol and weight gain may occur, as can high blood sugar which may be fatal. in clinical trials, weight, cholesterol and blood sugar changes were similar to placebo. so if you're affected by schizophrenia, have a conversation with your doctor about caplyta today. simon pagenaud takes the lead at the indy 500! coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. they're off... in the kentucky derby. rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. he scores! stanley cup champions! touchdown! only mahomes. the big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. good afternoon. i'm lindsey riser. president donald trump's efforts to win releaks seemingly by any means necessary are on display on several fronts this weekend. the administration continuing its work to undermine and underfund the post office. and by extension, the mail-in voting the president sees as a threat. we expect to hear more about that in just a few hours in a newly announced presidential briefing. also, trump's soinl and close adviser jared kushner admits to meeting with kanye west. >> and the president also amount of phiing completely baseless claims about the right of kamala harris to be on the democratic ticket. coming up this hour i will talk about an evident by supporters of the new vice presidential candidate to fight back against those kind of smears. we begin with breaking news on a couple of protests we are keeping an eye on right now. a tense scene in stone mountain, georgia as a white nationalist demonstration is facing counter-protests in the city's downtown. members of the white nationalist group, many carrying guns, and dressed in mi
leading president trump 52-42. it should come as no surprise that the president is trying to recast his economic handling of the economic damage suffered because of the coronavirus and the damage itself. the president held a prmps at the white house today to do just that, but he had some trouble sticking to the facts. he painted an overly rosy picture of the economy, even though just over half of the 22 million total jobs lost between february and april have still not returned. and he struggled to defend himself against accusations that his push for a covid vaccine has focused more on politics than science. >> your point is that what they're saying is that they're saying it for political purposes. >> yes. >> you have asserted repeatedly that a vaccine will be on the market before the election. >> no, i didn't say they will. i said by the end of the year. >> the same thing -- >> but you're not quoting me accurately. i said that vaccines will be on the market by the end of the year, but they may even be on the market, they even may fully developed, tested, everything else. >> for the record, the president just floated a november 1st delivery date for a vaccine last week. he even said it might come before a very special day. earlier in that news conference -- again, that's before election day. meanwhile, joe biden made his seventh trip to pennsylvania since the pandemic. and he also focused on coronavirus, defending himself against accusations that he doesn't want a vaccine because it would hurt his election chance chances. >> i want full transparency on a vaccine. one of the problems is the way he's playing with politics, he's said so many things that aren't true and worried if we do have a really good vaccine, people will be reluctant to take it. so he's undermining public confidence. but pray to god we have it. if i could get a vaccine tomorrow, i would do it. if it cost me the election, i would do it. we need a vaccine and need it now. you have to listen to the scientist scientists. >> in a few moments, joe biden will be meeting with afl-cio's president and the labor day weekend marks another first for the campaigns. this is the first time both candidates for vice president are on the trail on the same day in the same state. vice president mike pence and senator kamala harris are on opposite ends of wisconsin, a battleground state, increasingly essential to president trump's electoral math. a cbs/yougov. poll shows joe biden ahead of the president 50-44. senator harris is making her first trip to the battleground state since joining the ticket. she's expected to speak at a roundtable with black business leaders and pastors in milwaukee later this hour. we'll bring you those remarks live once they happen. leading off our discussion this hour are both robert gibbs, press secretary in the obama administration, and christina grier, associate professor at political science at fordham university. both of you, welcome. i noticed in the news conference, and there was a ton to talk to, the president kept saying that his first and only priority is to keep americans safe. and that's why he's been touting this vaccine. but at the same time, he's not wearing a mask. he's not social distancing at his rallies. in fact, he's encouraging people not to wear masks. look at this exchange he had with one of the white house reporters, jeff mason, as he tried to ask the president a question just today. >> the issue of what happens when you were in france -- >> you're going to have to take that off, please. you can take it off. how many feet are you away? >> i'll speak a lot louder. >> if you don't take it off, you're very muffled. if you would take it off -- >> i'll speak a lot louder. is that better? >> it's better, yeah. it's better. >> robert, his actions do not match up with his words. are americans seeing this? are the americans that will sway the election seeing this? >> well, i think if you look at some of the polling last week, the amount of people that can swing this election and haven't already made up their minds is a tiny, tiny number. but i do think that every time he goes out and tries to demonstrate leadership on something like the coronavirus, something like this happens and it undermines that message. i think these press conferences at the white house have far reached their point of diminishing marginal returns. i think there's very little to be gained, although he still continues to do it. and jeff mason, you and i both know him, is probably one of the nicest human beings on the planet. to get into an argument with jeff about wearing a mask, it just -- it shows you the kind of leader from a public health perspective that donald trump has been as president. and it's no wonder that we've seen just a botched attempt at blunting what never had to be the way it is right now. >> even if jeff mason was one of the meanest people you have ever come into contact with, still arguing with him over whether to wear a mask is not in the public heal health, not good for anyone to not wear a mask. you should be practicing that responsibility when you're in public, especially when you're on national television in a public place, you should be showing that it matters and the president should be the one helping to do so. meanwhile, the former vice president is out there saying the president is waiving the white flag on covid, saying that the president is not actually fighting the fight. he isn't living up to his words. let's listen to this and i've got a question on the other hen. >> he has just sort of waved the white flag on dealing with covid. and all he wants to do is just reopen. but the way he's reopening is causing us to shut down. look at what's happening with schools right now. if you have kids trying to get them back in school right now. it's pretty tough. >> how effective is that dueling imagery, both the president arguing with jeff mason, not wearing a mask himself at those campaign rallies, and joe biden at a socially distant roundtable, wearing a mask the entire time? >> i think joe biden is showing that he's not only got leadership, but empathy. keep in mind, this is not just 190,000-plus americans who have died, this is 190,000 families who have lost someone, 190,000 communities. for those of us that live in new york, later on this week we're going to solemnly remember what happened on 9/11, when almost 3,000 americans died. this is a 9/11 happening, you know, on a consistent basis, numbers wise, and the president is shrugging his shoulders. he's talking about the economy. he's talking about anything but the grieving that so many americans are going through. not just emotionally because a virus that didn't need to spread this live, but also, so many families are worried about the financial ramifications pop businesses that have been lost. evictions that are coming down the pike. occupations and full jobs that will never come back. so there's widespread failure on so many different levels by the president. and you have joe biden, who's leading by example. i mean, i don't think anyone wants to campaign with masks on. i don't think anyone wants to have social distancing. you and i know about campaigns. it's about pressing the flesh and touching voters and really listening to them and hearing what they have to say. and joe biden can't do that. we know that's where he thrives, but he's doing his pest to try to understand the plight of americans, something that donald trump time and time again has shown that he can't do, and he's quite honestly, not interested in doing. >> so we have the economy that is not good for millions and millions and millions of americans. we have the virus, which is approaching 200,000 dead. it could get up to 400,000 later this year if mask wearing is disregarded. social distancing disregarded. but then you also have the president playing defense, robert, on this military story, this story that dropped in "the atlantic," where the president said soldiers who died in war were losers and suckers. it's very detailed. people in the white house have gone on the record to say it's not true, but that's basically the press shop. the people that were in the store, john kelly has not come out and said this is not true. we haven't heard anything from general jim mattis, the president's defense secretary. when you talk about who is swayable in this election, do stories like this turn people? do they move the needle for those people who are on the fence? or is it like the john mccain story become in 2015, when the president went after john mccain, everyone assumed that was the death nail for his campaign and he only got stronger after that. >> i do think this is troublesome for the president. and as you mentioned, at that news conference was asked pointedly, had he asked. >> john kelly to come out and say this was not true. he said he hadn't. and my guess is he hadn't because he doesn't want john kelly to let the world know what is true. the quotes in that story sound an awful lot like the president that many americans have heard. i do think this affects, though, even that small number of people that have yet to make up their minds or are still persuadable. because i think stories like this, i think, when you see the president at a news conference, or you see his activities and rhetoric around last week, i think they see not somebody who is putting chaos in its place, i think they see someone who's fomenting chaos. i think the biden campaign loves the fact that what they see is, and they're trying to project a person that looks, talks, and acts presidential versus somebody that doesn't. and you mentioned that yougov. poll with wisconsin. if you look at the eight sort of swing state polls that we've seen over the past four to five days, you.gov, monmouth, quinnipiac, and fox. there are eight polls in five swing states. all five of those states donald trump won in 2016. he's currently leading in none of them. his average is 44%. he's polling under his 2016 result in every one of them. and joe biden is polling above what hillary clinton got in every one of them. so the president is in a terrible position with eight weeks to go. >> robert, but there's going to be a lot of people out there who say, hey, the polls didn't show him winning in 2016, why should we rely on these polls right now two months before the election? >> and look, everybody is going to have 2016 flashbacks until the vote's in in 2020 and those that want a different result see it. again, i would say, joe biden's polling at a different level than hillary clinton got in those states. so she's showing and demonstrating a strong candidacy than the one that hillary clinton had four years ago. undoubtedly, we have big moments left in h this campaign. three weeks from tomorrow will be the first presidential debate. it will be a big debate, undoubtedly, probably maybe bigger than we've seen in a while in presidential contests, because we just haven't the churning day-to-day of a political campaign because of this pandemic. there's definitely twists and turns to go, but if you're one of the campaigns right now, you would rather be where joe biden is. and shockingly, maybe the biggest thing we haven't talking about is "the new york times" talking about the trump campaign having money problems. this was just a few months ago, everyone thought joed jod wouldn't have the money and donald trump had more money than they knew what to do with, now they seem to be cutting tv because they don't have that money. >> you beat me to that question, which is, how much dupz money matter. how much does television campaigning matter at this point in the race, especially because we're in a pandemic and you can donate that glad handling that campaigns normally rely on. >> it does mean a lot. it means you're able to project a message and a place that you may not be every day. on a newscast that you're not on every night. i think it is important, particularly now, again, when you can't project like you used to be able to. and again wing it , i think it stunning. joe biden ladies $365 million last month, but it is remarkable that a campaign that was bragging about all of it resources is now cutting television, is now cutting those ads, whether it's upon broadcast tv or on digital, it's a stunning development. money shouldn't matter at this point in a race, because everyone should have so much of it that you're just trying to figure out what to spend oit on but it's remarkable, if you have a campaign like the president's campaign, literally not advertisings in places because of a money crunch. >> and "the new york times" is reporting that they cut that funding or bill stepien cut that funding, because he wasn't seeing any effect in the polling of what that funding was doing. on that note, christina, on them not having as much money and where to spend it, how to best use it, "the washington post" had a really great summary of how the president is campaigning right now, what he's rely option. it's not his record. for president trump and his allies, it was a weak spend spreading doctored and misleading videos, disseminating falsehoods and trafficking in obfuscation at a rapid clip through the use of selectively edited video, deceptive tweets and a slew of misstatements. it stood in contrast to the approach taken by biden, the former vice president who in 2019 took a message promising not to participate in the spread of ditz information over social media, including rejecting the use of deep fake videos. what's it say you that he's relying on lies to campaign right now? >> it says to me he's who he's always been. this is also a campaign right now, i call it the spaghetti noodle campaign. they think the decide or understand how they want to attack joe biden and kamala harris. one day they're saying joe biden is part of the radical left. the next day, they're saying he's part of conservative, hyperincarcerating cabal of democrats. so they don't have a full strategy. as you mentioned, they can't run on the president's record. how can you run on a record when 10,000 americans have died and the number keeps counting. how can you run on unemployment when we know it's 8.4% and that number is class actionedly underreported. how can you run on a record where he says everything is fake. and is golfing while other families are at funerals. it's not surprising this president is relying on the support from qanon and other non-credible media resources. it's not surprising that he's using any desperate tactics, because this is a president and an administration who don't, unless it's locking children in cages at a border, they don't really have a strategy, kpeps a campaign strategy. this is a president who didn't actually want to governor. this is something that he thought he would lose and spend the next four years harassing hillary clinton and making money off of it. now he sees this is a job quite harder and he's not capable and satly had been he knows it and doesn't know how to get out of the situation. >> who are you more focused on right now, the voter that voted for obama and then voted for trump, or the voter that did not come out for hillary clinton in 2016? >> i'm focused on the voter that did not come out and really focused on how biden and harris are going to matte that voter to hep them understand the dire threat that the american democracy currently faces. >> christina grier, thanks so much, and robert gibbs, thank you, as well. thank you for starting us off really strongly at this hour. coming up, a closer look at the financial storm created by the pandemic for many families. while friday's jobs report had a glimmer of hope, the rate of permanent job losses went up. and the thousands of people showing up at food banks across the country show just how desperate the situation is for some run. that's next. and later, with just 57 days until election day, steve kornacki will join us with a look at who's currently winning in the key battleground state. stay with us. we will be right back. battlegr. stay with us we will be right back. to show off the ease of comparing rates with progressive's home quote explorer. international hand model jon-jon gets personal. your wayward pinky is grotesque. then a high stakes patty-cake battle royale ends in triumph. you have the upper hands! it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. only on "the upper hands." it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. just between us, you know what's better than mopping? 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"the new york times" magazine reports, quote, in the pandemic economy, nearly one in eight households does not have enough to eat. food banks around the country are struggling to keep up with the demand. on thursday, in los angeles, 1800 people turned to a food bank in athens park. joining us now, nicholas kristof, a pulitzer prize-winning columnist for "the new york times," co-author of the book "tightrope," which is now available in paperback. i think there's a certain percentage of the population who thinks, hey, yeah, the economy is getting back. i have gotten my job back, things are starting to pick up. but there are still millions of americans who have nowhere to go and their lifelines are just run out between the unemployment benefits napper cut off, the lack of another bill from congress to supplement income for those who have lost their jobs. and take a look at the lines for food banks around the country. you don't need to go far. you can walk out the street in new york city and see the lines. i'm sure you can do that many most towns across this country and see the people in your neighborhood that are currently struggling right now. >> yeah, as you say, katy, we did have something of a rebound with the jobs, but there are still 11 million fewer americans with jobs now than there were in march. and it does increasingly seem that many of those job losses will be permanent. this didn't need to be. in germany, the unemployment rate has risen 1% since then. in the u.s., it has almost doubled. and so, you know, the consequences -- and these losses are disproportionately born on those who are least able to have the resources to support them. particularly households with children, for example. one study from brookings suggested that just over one third of households with children under 18 are struggling to feed those children. another study indicated that depression has -- there's a threefold increase in depression because of unemployment that is related to covid. and you mentioned my book, "tightrope." that is about how unemployment rippled through a community with a strong social fabric and kind of destroyed it. and left a quarter of the kids on my old school bus dead from drugs, alcohol, and suicide. i fear that we are now seeing very rapidly unfold that had happened in slow-motion in previous years. >> you say it didn't need to be this way. you cited what happened in germany. why are we set up this way? why is our society set up to allow millions of americans to go hungry and struggle and fall through the cracks. it doesn't benefit the entire society, doesn't benefit anybody if you have millions of people who can't get by. >> there's a callousness, frankly, that has taken root in the last 50 years in this country. and i have to say, it's not just on the right, that we have, in this country, seen people, too often, measure jobs simply in terms of the income stream, and not understand that concept of dignity of work, the value, the sense of identification that people get from the job. and acompany that, there has been this rise of this narrative how it's all about personal responsibility and people can lift themselves up by the bootstraps and when that phrase, lifting one up by the bootstraps originated in the early 1800s, it was a mocking expression. it was a joking expression about doing something impossible. and now all of a sudden, it's an instruction for what people are supposed to do to help themselves and their families, at a time when jobs are unavailable. >> our system is set up on einequality. you wrote this in july. so perhaps today's national pain, fear, and loss can also be a source of hope. we may be desperate, our failures so manifest, our grief so raw that the united states can once more, as during the great depression, embrace long-needed changes that would have been impossible in cheerier times. i know a lot of people who are hoping that this would be the moment where we figured out a way to keep an even bottom, for everybody in this country. it doesn't seem like by the looks of what's happening in congress that anything is happening. that there's going to be any systemic change in the near-term. >> depends how you define next january, whether that's near-term or not. but let me give you -- >> i meant the next few months. >> you know, i think too often in this country, we blame the broader problems we faced over the last 50 years on industrialization, on globalization, on technology. look, canada, germany went through these forces and they did not lose one person every seven minutes from a drug overdose. they didn't see the social fabric disintegrate in the way it did in this country. and i do think that we, for 50 years -- you know, we're the only country that doesn't have universal health care, doesn't have universal paid sick leave. i think that in a pandemic, in a time of infectious disease, those shortcomings are a little more obvious than they normally are. and i hope this will lead to a mandate for far-reaching change so we'll be a little bit more like canada and europe. >> it's made it even more glaring. think of all the americans who had private health insurance, who no longer have private health insurance because they've lost their jobs. nick kristof, thank you so much for joining us. we always appreciate all of your insight on this topic. and coming up, kamala harris is not buying the claim that there will be a coronavirus vaccine by the election, especially from the president, who, as she says, told us to inject bleach. that's next. s to inject bleach. that's next. i am robert strickler. i've been involved in communications in the media for 45 years. i've been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. for me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. and i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. it has helped me an awful lot. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. now you can trade stocks and etfs for any amount you choose instead of buying by the share. all with no commissions. stocks by the slice from fidelity. get your slice today. introducing the future of fitness. it's every class you can imagine, live. welcome back to the mirror. you've got this john. and on demand. it's boxing... cardio... yoga... and more. it's an interactive, goal crushing...whole family...whole body fitness machine. it's so cool! the future of fitness is at home. the mirror. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs. or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything. ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. an nbc news tally shows that the death toll from the coronavirus in the united states the now approaching 200,000. as of this hour, 190,178 people have died of coronavirus in the united states, with more than 6.3 million confirmed cases. the university of washington says the worst could be yet to come, projecting the u.s. coronavirus death toll will double to more than 410,000 by the end of the year, if masks and social distancing guidelines are disregarded. and "the washington post" reports, quote, president trump is so fixated on finding a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that in meetings about the u.s. pandemic response, little else captures his attention, according to administration officials. in recent days, he has told some advisers and aides that a vaccine may arrive by november 1st, which just so happens to be two days before the presidential election. hours ago, donald trump said this about the vaccine. >> we're going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. you know what date i'm talking about. >> you're talking about election day. the centers for disease control and prevention has now notified all 50 states to prepare to distribute a health care vaccine to health care workers as soon as late october or early november. joe biden said, my guess is he's going to announce a vaccine, he's going to say it's going to be available around election day, he's going to hype it. and kamala harris says she will not trust donald trump alone on a coronavirus vaccine. >> president trump has promised a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year or maybe sooner. would you trust that vaccine? >> i think that we have learned since this pandemic started, but really before that, that there's very little that we can trust that comes out of donald trump's mouth. i will not take his word for it. he wants us to inject plaebleac. no, ll i will not take his word. >> doctor, what do you need to see in order to trust that a vaccine is safe, once one does become available? >> well, happy labor day, katy, good to see you, as always. you know, look, every health care professional that you speak with, medical, public health professional, they're all going to say that they're eagerly awaiting the vaccine. there's no question about that. but the issue is that the vaccine -- remember, this is going to be a medication that we plan to inoculate into 200, 300 million people in this country, not to mention globally. we need absolute reassurance that this medication, this vaccine has undergone all the appropriate phases of clinical trials, in terms of safety and efficacy. and so as you probably know, the vaccines that are undergoing clinical trials right now, phase iii, that's that phase where it's testing not only a large number of people, 30,000, 40,000, it's not just the number, but the timeline. it's monitoring for potential possible adverse events. you can't just notice those things in 20, 30 days. if there are neurologic man manifestati manifestations, that's going to take months to reveal. concern is we're rushing through this vaccine development process. and to remind your viewers, the fastest we've ever delivered a vaccine for safety delivery into patients has been four years. the fact we're trying to do this for this novel disease in less than a year, it makes a lot of us quite skeptical, katy. >> when you take polling and ask people whether they are going to think that this vaccine is safe, we'll show you some of the results. if a coronavirus vaccine came out this year in 2020, what would your first thought be? 65% said it was probably rushed without enough testing. 35% say it's a scientific achievement to find a vaccine that fast. part of the reason you're getting these numbers is that the president has ploliticized everything, every institution that we have. the fbi, the doj, but now also the fda and the cdc, our public health institutions, by pushing through emergency approvals for things like plasma or hydroxychloroquine. when we're talking about a vaccine and talking about a global pandemic, obviously, there is a need to get a vaccine as quickly as possible, but also one that is safe. how do you balance those two? at what point is it safe to put out a vaccine, in your estimation? i know that these are all very vague ideas right now, but would one in early 2021 seem like more reasonable timeline? >> yeah, you know, i remember when i was in grad school, one of my professors said, you know, the hallmark of intelligence isn't the answer one gives, but the questions one asks. so the way i would refrain polling questions to the public is, how willing are you to take a vaccine that's going to be inside of your body for the rest of your life, that has not undergone the most rigorous safety and testing processes? that's the question i would ask. and if it's framed in that way, knowing this vaccine could have adverse consequences. my guess is that the numbers would be much lower. everything in life is a trade-off, katy, and everything we do certainly in medical research is a trade-off. so it's a question of balancing safety with the rigorous signs and research and keeping people safe, katy. >> it always is. dr. roy, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate all of your time. and coming up, the election has already started, at least in one key battleground states where voter have already received their mail-in ballots. will tasha brown of black voters matter. up next, how vote by mail efforts are going on the ground as the president continues to cast doubt and undermine the entire process. tinues to cast doubt and undermine the entire process for skin that never holds you back don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin gold bond at philof cream cheese.w what makes the perfect schmear you need only the freshest milk and cream. that one! and the 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nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, belly pain, and decreased appetite, which lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. we're committed to helping ensure trulicity is available and affordable. learn more at trulicity.com. the early voting process has already started in one key battleground state. north carolina is the first state to send out absentee ballots, which started going out on friday and the first votes of the 2020 presidential election could be cast as early as this week. each state works on a different election timeline, including voter registration deadlines. that ranges from some states that allow voters to register at the polls on election day to others with registration deadlines as far as 30 days before the election. that means voter registration efforts in many states have less than one month to get eligible voters registered. joining us now is latasha brown, the cofounder of black voters matter fund. it's always great to see you, thank you for joining us today. tell me about your efforts so far this year. what are you noticing? >> what i'm noticing is that in spite of all of the information and in spite of the president's greatest attempts to really make people be fearful of this election cycle, what we're seeing is an increase in demand that people are intending to vote. that even when you look at north carolina that just started their absentee ballot process, which is the first state in the nation, they had over 600 applications for their absentee ballot voting, as opposed to four years ago, when there were only 28,000. so that's a significant difference and a significant demand. what we've been seeing in the states that we've been working in, we're working deeply in 11 states and 15 additional -- 15, as well. in those states, people are saying, they're asking us. we're getting phone calls every day around how to vote, how to do their mail minute voting. there are people -- there is some healthy skepticism around the mail-in voting, but a lot of people who have also been saying, they're planning to vet, but they're going to vote early. >> so when i was at a trump event the other day, i talked to voters and every single one at this trump event told me that they thought that mail-in ballots were fraud and the election would be stolen if they were to go on. are you finding that reaction towards mail-in voting is down party lines or is there crossover between democrats and republicans who don't trust that process? >> i think that there's some concern around mail v-in voting. there's a skepticism across the board, particularly because african-american voters don't trust mail-in vote and don't trust the president. i think that you see that across the board. i think that's what the intention of president trump was to do. that literally, that part of what he has been doing is push propaganda so he can create this culture of fear. what gives me hope is that i've been seeing people that are saying, regardless of the process, that they're going to vote early, that they're people who are adamant that they're going to do mail-in voting or vote in person. come heck or high water, they're planning to vote. what i see is there is a skepticism, often, a lot of conversation around mail-in voting, because people don't understand if the process -- if there's going to be integrity in the process, when you have the highest office of the land that is actually trying to cast doubt. you know, the other piece that is actually interesting, though -- >> go ahead. i interrupted. kbd, keep talking. >> i was going to say, people really do trust the post office. while there are concerns, people have -- and i want to say happy labor day to the millions of postal workers today that are continuing to serve us in spite of in -- what is happening right now. >> latasha, one quick question, because your organization is on the ground. so many of us are stuck inside, for instance, me in my basement. i'm not talking to as many voters as i would like to normally during an election day, give me an honest assessment of what you're seeing in terms of enthusiasm to go out and vote between 2016 and 2020 or 2018 and 2020? >> i think in 2016, it was a different kind of excitement. i think it's different. i don't know if you can compare. almost like apples and oranges. i think what drives people to vote is different. i think what you saw in 2016, that was a tremendous amount of concern in the election and so you saw, you know -- when obama ran, there was a lot of excitement. i think what you see now, people are angry that in spite of the millions of people that are unemployed right now, you have a government that seems like it is faltering. you have over 160,000 people who have died for covid-19. people are angry. and often times, that can push people to vote as well. that's what we're seeing on the ground. but we are seeing a lot of energy of people -- a lot of organizations and people daily who are saying, they are adamant about voting. >> anger can sometimes animate more people to vote than excitement. latasha brown, thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate all of your increa expertise. coming up, too, "veeveep candid. steve kornacki will break down the state of that state and how the race to 270 electoral votes looks roup with again just 57 days until election day. stay with us. 57 days until election day. stay wh itus . . . . some companies still have hr stuck between employees and their data. entering data. changing data. more and more sensitive, personal data. and it doesn't just drag hr down. it drags the entire business down -- with inefficiency, errors and waste. it's ridiculous. so ridiculous. with paycom, employees enter and manage their own data in a single, easy to use software. visit paycom.com, and schedule your demo today. that selling carsarvana, 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to 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event. in wisconsin highlighting the importance of the battle ground state where donald trump won by less than one percent in 2016, that was less than 23,000 votes. here with more on the state of that state's race 57 days out our political correspondent at the big board, i hope you will tell us more about the battle ground states including wisconsin which donald trump barely won. >> i figured we'd start here and work our way from the 30,000 foot view down to wisconsin and other states like this. the national polling right now shows, you can see here, about a seven-point lead for joe biden. one thing to keep in mind when you see this number now and as you see it over the next few months of course, hilly clinton won the popular vote but trump won the electoral college, when you see a seven point different between biden and trump you can expect a tick or two below, so this is what the swing states look like right now. you can see these were six states trump won in 2016 by varying margins. six states biden in the polling leads, the average lead varies, but in each of those states it is several points closer than the national average. that's a dynamic to keep in mind as you look at swing state polling in the weeks and two months ahead. we mentioned wisconsin, it's one of those three states it was a fraction of a point, three states trump won by less than one, three state that's hadn't gone for republican since the 80's three states the democrats like their prospects in. look closely at wisconsin that's the one where not just the candidates are but that's the one trump's been saying between the republican convention, the kenosha events and law and order that's the one they thought they'd have movement in. here's before the conventions, before kenosha, the margin for biden was six points and now a new poll, the same pollster before the convention in ken osha and now what do you have? six, so in that poll, unchanged. you see the average in wisconsin, all the different polls is dally right there. -- basically right there. that's troubling for the trump campaign because so much talk about wisconsin is ground zero where their message would resonate. what's it mean for battle trump wins with 306 those three states the margin was less than a point in 2016, the polls right now put biden up, if those states flip and nothing else changes, you take a look what happens if biden flips those three he wins, 278, if nothing else changes. okay. >> steve, you're so good that i had a question but you answered all my questions as you went through all that, so steve, thank you very much. such a small margin for the president in 2016. it's not going to take much for joe biden to turn it back around if all things stay the same. thanks so much. we have much more ahead at the top the next hour, we'll look at the ongoing fall out from the stunning piece in the atlantic about donald trump and the military. you're watching msnbc. we made usaa insurance for veterans like liz and 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who died in battle losers and suckers. the head winds the president is facing. a new poll of likely voters has joe biden leading donald trump 52 to 42. it might come as no surprise that the president has been trying to recast the handling of the economic damage suffered from the coronavirus and response to the virus itself. the president held a press conference at the white house today to do just that. he had some trouble sticking to the facts. he painted an overly rosy picture of the economy. everyone though just over half of the 22 million total jobs lost between february and april have still not returned. struggled to defend himself again accusations that his push for a covid-19 vaccine is focussed on politics than science. >> what they're saying is political purposes. you have satered repeatedly a vaccine will be on the market by before the election. >> i didn't say they will. by the end of the year. you're not quoting me accurately. i said before the end of year. they may oechb be on the market developed and fully developed and tested. >> for the record the president just floated a november 1 delivery day for a vaccine last week. everyone said it might come before a very special day. earlier in the news conference. again before election day. meanwhile joe biden made his seventh trip to pennsylvania. since the pandemic. and also focussed on coronavirus. defending himself against accusations he doesn't want a vaccine. because it would hurt his election chances. >> i want full transparency on a vaccine. one of the problems is he's playing with policy. so many things that aren't true. and i'm worried if we have a good vaccine people won't take it. he's under mining public confidence. if i could get a vaccine tomorrow i'd do it. if it cost me the election i'd do it. we need a vaccine and we need it now. >> in a few moments joe biden will be meeting with richard the group headquarters in pennsylvania. and the labor day weekend marks another first for the campaign. this is the first time both candidates for vice president are on the trail on the same day. in the stadium same state. pence and senator harris are on opposite ends of wisconsin. a battleground state increasingly essential to president trump's electoral map. a poll of wisconsin voters finds joe biden ahead of the president 50 to 44. the vice president is in a heavily white city. and senator harris is making her first trip to the state since joining the democratic ticket. he's expected to speak at a round table with black business leaders in milwaukee. we'll bring the remarks live. leading off lt discussion this hour. robert gibs former press secretary in the obama administration. political analyst. and a associate professor of political science. both welcome. i notice in the news conference. there's a ton to talk about. the president kept saying his first and only priority is to keep americans safe. that's why he's touting this vaccine. at the same time he's not wearing a mask. not social distancing at rallies. he's earn couraging people not to wear masks. looks at this exchange with a white house reporter. trying to ask the president a question just today. >> the issue of what happens when you -- >> you'll have to take that off please. take it off. how many feet are you away? if you don't take it off. you are muffled. take off it would be easier. >> i'll speak louder. is that better? >> it's better, yeah. >> his actions do not match up with his words. our americans seeing this. americans that will sway the election seeing this? >> if you look at the polling last week the amount of people that can swing the election and haven't made up their minds is a tiny number. every time he goes out and tries to demonstrate leadership on something like the coronavirus, something like this happens. and it under mines that message. i think these press conferences at the white house have far reached their point of diminishing marginal return. there's very little to be gained. we both know the nicest human being on the planet. to get in an argument with jeff about wearing a mask, it just shows you the kind of leader from a public health perspective that donald trump has been as president. it's no wonder we have seen just a botched attempt at blunting what never had to be the way it is now. >> even if jeff was one of the meanest people you have come into contact with. still arguing with him over whether to wear a mask is not in the public health -- good for anybody to have somebody not wear a mask. practice the social responsibility in public and national tv in a public place. to show people it matters. the president should be the one helping him do so. meanwhile, the vice president the former vice president joe biden is out there saying the president waving the white flag on covid-19. saying the president is not actually fighting the fight. not living up to his words. let's listen. i have a question on the other end. >> he is just waeed the white plag on dealing with covid-19. and he wants to reopen. but the way he's reopening is causing to shut down. look what's happening with schools. we have kids trying to get them in school. it's tough. >> how effective is that dualing imagery. the president arguing with jeff not wearing a mask himself and campaign rallies and joe biden at a socially distant round table wearing a mask. >> joe biden is showing he's not only got leadership was empathy. this is 190,000 americans dead. this is 190,000 families who lost someone. 190,000 communities. for those in new york next week we're going to remember what happened on 9/11. almost 3,000 americans died. this is ni9/11 happening on a consistent basis numbers wise. and the president is shrugging his shoulders. talks about the economy and anything but the grieving. not just emotionally because of the virus that didn't need to spread this wide. also so many families are worried about financial ramifications. business lost. addictions down the pipe. occupations and jobs that will never come back. there's widespread failure on so many different levels by the president. and joe biden leading by example. nobody wants to campaign with masks on or have social distancing. we know about campaigns. it's pressing the flesh and touching voters and hearing what they have. joe biden can't do that. that's where he thrives. he's trying to understand the plight of americans. something that trump time and time again is shown he can't do and not interested in doing. >> we have the economy. that is not good for millions and millions of americans. we have the virus which is a approaching 200,000 dead. it could get up to 400,000. later this year. if masks wearing is disregarded. social distancing disregarded. then you have the president playing defense on this military story. this story that dropped in the atlantaic. soldiers who die in war are losers and suckers. it's very detailed. people in the white house have gone on the record to say it's not true. that's the press shop. the people that were in the story, john kelly. hasn't come out and said this is not true. we haven't heard anything from general joe mattis the president defense secretary. when you talk about who is swayable in this election, do stories like this turn people. do they move the needle for the people on the fence. or is it like the mccain story in 2015. the president went after him, everybody assumed that that was the death nail for his campaign. and he got stronger after that. >> i think this is troublesome for the president. you mention at that news conference was asked he had asked kelly to come out and say this was not true. he hadn't. because he doesn't want kelly to let the world know what is true. that the quotes in the story sound an awful lot like the president americans have hear. this effects the small number of people that have yet to make up their minds. i think stories like this i think when you see the president and a news conference. you see his activity in rhetoric around the last week. they see not somebody who is putting chaos in its place. i think they see somebody who is foemting chaos. the biden campaign loves the fact they are trying to project a person that looks, talks and acts presidential. vs. somebody that doesn't. you medicntion the poll in wisconsin. the eight sort of swing state polls that we have seen over four days. eight polls in five swing states. all five trump won in 2016. he's currently leading in none. his average is 44%. he's polling under his 2016 result in every one of them. and joe biden is polling above what clinton got in every one of them. the president is in a terrible position. with eight weeks to go. >> there's going to be a lot of people say the polls didn't show him winning in 2016. why should we rely on the polls two months before the election? >> everybody will have 2016 flash backs until the votes in in 2020. and those that want a different result see it. i would say joe biden polling in a different level than clinton got in the states. he is showing and demonstrating a stronger candidacy than the one that hillary clinton had four years ago. we have big moments left in the campaign. three weeks from tomorrow will be the first presidential debate. it will be a big debate. undoubtedly. and probably maybe bigger than we have seen in a while in presidential contest. we haven't had the churning day-to-day of a political campaign. because of the pandemic. there's twists and turns to go. if you're one of the campaigns you'd rather be where joe biden is. maybe the "new york times" biggest thing we haven't talked about is the "new york times" talking about the trump campaign having money problems. just a few months ago everyone thought joe biden wouldn't have the money. and donald trump had more money than he knew what to do with. they are cutting tv. they don't have the money. it shows you the relative strengths and weaknesses. >> you beat me to the question. how much does money matter at this point? does television campaigning matter at this point in the race. especially since we're in a pandemic. and you can't do the glad handing that campaigns rely on. >> it does mean a lot. you are able to project a message in a place that you may not be every day. in on a newscast that you are not on every night. it is important particularly now again when you can't project quite like you used to be able to. i think it's stunning. joe biden raised $365 million last month. that is stunning. it is remarkable a campaign that was bragging that about all of its resources is now cutting television. is cutting those ads. whether it's on broadcast tv or digital. it's a stunning development. money shouldn't matter at this point in race. everyone should have so much of it. that you're trying to fig your out what to spend it on. if you have a campaign like the president's campaign not advertising in places because of the money crunch. >> "new york times" is reporting they cut that funding. because he wasn't seeing any effect in the polling of what the funding was doing. on that note, not having as much money and being unsure where to spend it and best use it. the "washington post" had a really great summary of how the president is campaigning right now. what he's relying on. not his record. for president trump it was a week spent spreading doctored and misleading videos. falsehoods and trafficking at a rapid clip through the use of selectively edited videos. decepsive retweets and false statements. slew of false and misleading tweets and videos in contrast to the approach by joe biden. who took a pledge promising not to participate in the spread of disinformation over social media. including rejecting the use of deep fake videos. what does it say he's relying on lies to campaign? >> he's who he's always been. this is also a campaign that i call the noodle campaign. it can't decide or understand how they want to attack joe biden. and harris. one day biden is part of the right wing radical left. the other he's part of the conservative hyper incarcerating democrats. they don't have a full strategy. and they can't run other on the president's record. 190,000 americans have died in the number keeps counting. how can you run on a record 8.4 unemployment. and the numbers is under reported. and black and latino communities that is much higher. how can you run on a record a president governs by insult. a record he says everything is fake. he's golfing when families are at funerals. it's not surprising this president is relying on the support from non-credible media sources and using desperate tactics. this is the president and administration who don't unless it's locking children in cages don't have a strategy. especially campaign strategy. he didn't want to govern. this something that he thought he would lose and spend the next four years harassing clinton and making money. he sees this the job much harder and not capable and sadly he knows it. and doesn't know how to get out of the situation. >> one last quick question. who are you more focussed on? the voter that voted for obama and voted for trump. or the voter that didn't come out for clinton in 2016. >> i'm focussed on the voter that didn't come out. focussed on how biden and harris will motivate that voter to help them understand the dire threat of the american democracy currently faces. >> thanks so much. coming up we'll look at the financial storm created by the pandemic for many families. friday jobs report had a glimmer of hope. the rate of permanent job losses went up. and the thousands of people showing up at food banks across the country. show just how desperate the situation is for some right now. that's next chlts. >> with the 57 days until election day. steve will join us with a look at who is current will leading in the key battleground state. stay with us. these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the services of the post office plus ups only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. on this labor day, new data from the u.s. department of labor shows that the coronavirus pandemic is still battering the labor market. last week, another 881,000 people filed new unemployment claims. 29 million people or one out of every five american adults were receiving some form of unemployment assistance as of mid-august. the unemployment rate sits right now at 8.4%. employers added 1.4 million jobs last month, down from 1.7 in july and the fewest since hiring resumed back in may. permanent job losses are also a great concern, with 3.4 million people reporting their jobs are gone for good. today president trump said this about the economy, despite its biggest shock in at least 73 years in the second quarter. >> we are president midst of the fastest economic recovery in u.s. history. >> as a the coronavirus pandemic continues, many out of work americans grappling with hunger. "the new york times" magazine reports, quote, in the pandemic economy, nearly one in eight households does not have enough to eat. food banks around the country are struggling to keep up with the demand. on thursday, in los angeles, 1800 people turned to a food bank in athens park. joining us now, nicholas kristof, a pulitzer prize-winning columnist for "the new york times," co-author of the book "tightrope," which is now available in paperback. i think there's a certain percentage of the population who thinks, hey, yeah, the economy is getting back. i have gotten my job back, things are starting to pick up. but there are still millions of americans who have nowhere to go and their lifelines are just run out between the unemployment benefits napper cut off, the lack of another bill from congress to supplement income for those who have lost their jobs. and take a look at the lines for food banks around the country. you don't need to go far. you can walk out the street in new york city and see the lines. i'm sure you can do that many most towns across this country and see the people in your neighborhood that are currently struggling right now. >> yeah, as you say, katy, we did have something of a rebound with the jobs, but there are still 11 million fewer americans with jobs now than there were in march. and it does increasingly seem that many of those job losses will be permanent. this didn't need to be. in germany, the unemployment rate has risen 1% since then. in the u.s., it has almost doubled. and so, you know, the consequences -- and these losses are disproportionately born on those who are least able to have the resources to support them. particularly households with children, for example. one study from brookings suggested that just over one third of households with children under 18 are struggling to feed those children. another study indicated that depression has -- there's a threefold increase in depression because of unemployment that is related to covid. and you mentioned my book, "tightrope." that is about how unemployment rippled through a community with a strong social fabric and kind of destroyed it. and left a quarter of the kids on my old school bus dead from drugs, alcohol, and suicide. i fear that we are now seeing very rapidly unfold that had happened in slow-motion in previous years. >> you say it didn't need to be this way. you cited what happened in germany. why are we set up this way? why is our society set up to allow millions of americans to go hungry and struggle and fall through the cracks. it doesn't benefit the entire society, doesn't benefit anybody if you have millions of people who can't get by. >> there's a callousness, frankly, that has taken root in the last 50 years in this country. and i have to say, it's not just on the right, that we have, in this country, seen people, too often, measure jobs simply in terms of the income stream, and not understand that concept of dignity of work, the value, the sense of identification that people get from the job. and acompany that, there has been this rise of this narrative how it's all about personal responsibility and people can lift themselves up by the bootstraps and when that phrase, lifting one up by the bootstraps originated in the early 1800s, it was a mocking expression. it was a joking expression about doing something impossible. and now all of a sudden, it's an instruction for what people are supposed to do to help themselves and their families, at a time when jobs are unavailable. >> our system is set up on einequality. it's foundation. you wrote this in july. so perhaps today's national pain, fear, and loss can also be a source of hope. we may be desperate, our failures so manifest, our grief so raw that the united states can once more, as during the great depression, embrace long-needed changes that would have been impossible in cheerier times. i know a lot of people who are hoping that this would be the moment where we figured out a way to keep an even bottom, for everybody in this country. it doesn't seem like by the looks of what's happening in congress that anything is happening. that there's going to be any systemic change in the near-term. >> depends how you define next january, whether that's near-term or not. but let me give you -- >> i meant the next few months. >> you know, i think too often in this country, we blame the broader problems we faced over the last 50 years on industrialization, on globalization, on technology. look, canada, germany went through these forces and they did not lose one person every seven minutes from a drug overdose. they didn't see the social fabric disintegrate in the way it did in this country. and i do think that we, for 50 years -- you know, we're the only country that doesn't have universal health care, doesn't have universal paid sick leave. i think that in a pandemic, in a time of infectious disease, those shortcomings are a little more obvious than they normally are. and i hope this will lead to a mandate for far-reaching change so we'll be a little bit more like canada and europe. >> it's made it even more glaring. think of all the americans who had private health insurance, who no longer have private health insurance because they've lost their jobs. nick kristof, thank you so much for joining us. we always appreciate all of your insight on this topic. and coming up, kamala harris is not buying the claim that there will be a coronavirus vaccine by the election, especially from the president, who, as she says, told us to inject bleach. that's next. robinhood believes now is the time to do money. without the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. it's kind of my quiet, alone time. audible is a routine for me. it's like a fun night school for adults. i could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. i never was interested in historical fiction before, but i'm obsessed with it now. there are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i don't have time to read, mean i might as well listen. if i want to catch up on the news or history or learn what's going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. because i listened to her story over and over again, i made the decision to go ahead and follow my own dream, which was to help other veterans. i think there's like 180 books in my, in my library now. it changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. it's true, it's so true. to start your free 30-day trial, just text listen17 to 500500. so why not do what you've been dreaming of? you've got the power, we've got the tools. make a website with godaddy and put what you want out there. an nbc news tally shows that the death toll from the coronavirus in the united states the now approaching 200,000. as of this hour, 190,178 people have died of coronavirus in the united states, with more than 6.3 million confirmed cases. the university of washington says the worst could be yet to come, projecting the u.s. coronavirus death toll will double to more than 410,000 by the end of the year, if masks and social distancing guidelines are disregarded. and "the washington post" reports, quote, president trump is so fixated on finding a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that in meetings about the u.s. pandemic response, little else captures his attention, according to administration officials. in recent days, he has told some advisers and aides that a vaccine may arrive by november 1st, which just so happens to be two days before the presidential election. hours ago, donald trump said this about the vaccine. >> we're going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. you know what date i'm talking about. >> you're talking about election day. the centers for disease control and prevention has now notified all 50 states to prepare to distribute a health care vaccine to health care workers as soon as late october or early november. joe biden said, my guess is he's going to announce a vaccine, he's going to say it's going to be available around election day, he's going to hype it. and kamala harris says she will not trust donald trump alone on a coronavirus vaccine. >> president trump has promised a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year or maybe sooner. would you trust that vaccine? >> i think that we have learned since this pandemic started, but really before that, that there's very little that we can trust that comes out of donald trump's mouth. i will not take his word for it. he wants us to inject bleach. no, i will not take his word. >> internal medical physician, >> doctor, what do you need to see in order to trust that a vaccine is safe, once one does become available? >> well, happy labor day, katy, good to see you, as always. you know, look, every health care professional that you speak with, medical, public health professional, they're all going to say that they're eagerly awaiting the vaccine. there's no question about that. but the issue is that the vaccine -- remember, this is going to be a medication that we plan to inoculate into 200, 300 million people in this country, not to mention globally. we need absolute reassurance that this medication, this vaccine has undergone all the appropriate phases of clinical trials, in terms of safety and efficacy. and so as you probably know, the vaccines that are undergoing clinical trials right now, phase iii, that's that phase where it's testing not only a large number of people, 30,000, 40,000, it's not just the number, but the timeline. it's monitoring for potential possible adverse events. you can't just notice those things in 20, 30 days. if there are neurologic manifestations, that's going to take months to reveal. concern is we're rushing through this vaccine development process. and to remind your viewers, the fastest we've ever delivered a vaccine for safety delivery into patients has been four years. the fact we're trying to do this for this novel disease in less than a year, it makes a lot of us quite skeptical, katy. >> when you take polling and ask people whether they are going to think that this vaccine is safe, we'll show you some of the results. if a coronavirus vaccine came out this year in 2020, what would your first thought be? 65% said it was probably rushed without enough testing. 35% say it's a scientific achievement to find a vaccine that fast. part of the reason you're getting these numbers is that the president has politicized everything, every institution that we have. the fbi, the doj, but now also the fda and the cdc, our public health institutions, by pushing through emergency approvals for things like plasma or hydroxychloroquine. when we're talking about a vaccine and talking about a global pandemic, obviously, there is a need to get a vaccine as quickly as possible, but also one that is safe. how do you balance those two? at what point is it safe to put out a vaccine, in your estimation? i know that these are all very vague ideas right now, but would one in early 2021 seem like more reasonable timeline? >> yeah, you know, i remember when i was in grad school, one of my professors said, you know, the hallmark of intelligence isn't the answer one gives, but the questions one asks. so the way i would refrain polling questions to the public is, how willing are you to take a vaccine that's going to be inside of your body for the rest of your life, that has not undergone the most rigorous safety and testing processes? that's the question i would ask. and if it's framed in that way, knowing this vaccine could have adverse consequences. my guess is that the numbers would be much lower. everything in life is a trade-off, katy, and everything we do certainly in medical research is a trade-off. so it's a question of balancing safety with the rigorous signs and research and keeping people safe, katy. >> it always is. dr. roy, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate all of your time. and coming up, the election has already started, at least in one key battleground states where voter have already received their mail-in ballots. will tasha brown of black voters matter. has been a tireless of voters rights. up next, how vote by mail efforts are going on the ground as the president continues to cast doubt and undermine the entire process. investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. i'm a talking dog. the other issue. oh...i'm scratching like crazy. you've got some allergic itch with skin inflammation. apoquel can work on that itch in as little as 4 hours, whether it's a new or chronic problem. and apoquel's treated over 8 million dogs. nice. and...the talking dog thing? is it bothering you? no...itching like a dog is bothering me. until dogs can speak for themselves, you have to. when allergic itch is a problem, ask for apoquel. apoquel is for the control of itch associated with allergic dermatitis and the control of atopic dermatitis in dogs. do not use apoquel in dogs less than 12 months old or those with serious infections. apoquel may increase the chance of developing serious infections and may cause existing parasitic skin infestations or pre-existing cancers to worsen. do not use in breeding, pregnant, or lactating dogs. most common side effects are vomiting and diarrhea. feeling better? i'm speechless. thanks for the apoquel. aw...that's what friends are for. ask your veterinarian for apoquel next to you, apoquel is a dog's best friend. the early voting process has already started in one key battleground state. north carolina is the first state to send out absentee ballots, which started going out on friday and the first votes of the 2020 presidential election could be cast as early as this week. each state works on a different election timeline, including voter registration deadlines. that ranges from some states that allow voters to register at the polls on election day to others with registration deadlines as far as 30 days before the election. that means voter registration efforts in many states have less than one month to get eligible voters registered. joining us now is latasha brown, the cofounder of black voters matter fund. it's always great to see you, thank you for joining us today. tell me about your efforts so far this year. what are you noticing? >> what i'm noticing is that in spite of all of the information and in spite of the president's greatest attempts to really make people be fearful of this election cycle, what we're seeing is an increase in demand that people are intending to vote. that even when you look at north carolina that just started their absentee ballot process, which is the first state in the nation, they had over 600 applications for their absentee ballot voting, as opposed to four years ago, when there were only 28,000. so that's a significant difference and a significant demand. what we've been seeing in the states that we've been working in, we're working deeply in 11 states and 15 additional -- 15, as well. in those states, people are saying, they're asking us. we're getting phone calls every day around how to vote, how to do their mail minute voting. there are people -- there is some healthy skepticism around the mail-in voting, but a lot of people who have also been saying, they're planning to vet, but they're going to vote early. >> so when i was at a trump event the other day, i talked to voters and every single one at this trump event told me that they thought that mail-in ballots were fraud and the election would be stolen if they were to go on. are you finding that reaction towards mail-in voting is down party lines or is there crossover between democrats and republicans who don't trust that process? >> i think that there's some concern around mail-in voting. there's a skepticism across the board, particularly because african-american voters don't trust mail-in vote and don't trust the president. don't trust td the process. the president is creating doubt in it. i think that you see that across the board. i think that's what the intention of president trump was to do. that literally, that part of what he has been doing is push propaganda so he can create this culture of fear. what gives me hope is that i've been seeing people that are saying, regardless of the process, that they're going to vote early, that they're people who are adamant that they're going to do mail-in voting or vote in person. come heck or high water, they're planning to vote. what i see is there is a skepticism, often, a lot of conversation around mail-in voting, because people don't understand if the process -- if there's going to be integrity in the process, when you have the highest office of the land that is actually trying to cast doubt. you know, the other piece that is actually interesting, though -- >> go ahead. i interrupted. >> i was going to say, people really do trust the post office. while there are concerns, people have -- and i want to say happy labor day to the millions of postal workers today that are continuing to serve us in spite of in -- what is happening right now. >> latasha, one quick question, because your organization is on the ground. so many of us are stuck inside, for instance, me in my basement. i'm not talking to as many voters as i would like to normally during an election day, give me an honest assessment of what you're seeing in terms of enthusiasm to go out and vote between 2016 and 2020 or 2018 and 2020? >> i think in 2016, it was a different kind of excitement. i think it's different. i don't know if you can compare. almost like apples and oranges. i think what drives people to vote is different. i think what you saw in 2016, that was a tremendous amount of concern in the election and so you saw, you know -- when obama ran, there was a lot of excitement. i think what you see now, people are angry that in spite of the millions of people that are unemployed right now, you have a government that seems like it is faltering. you have over 160,000 people who have died for covid-19. people are angry. and often times, that can push people to vote as well. that's what we're seeing on the ground. but we are seeing a lot of energy of people -- a lot of organizations and people daily who are saying, they are adamant about voting. >> anger can sometimes animate more people to vote than excitement. latasha brown, thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate all of your expertise. coming up, too, veep candidates. both in wisconsin today. steve kornacki will break down the state of that state and how the race to 270 electoral votes looks roup with again just 57 days until election day. stay with us. robinhood believes now is the time to do money. without the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. it's kind of my quiet, alone time. audible is a routine for me. it's like a fun night school for adults. i could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. i never was interested in historical fiction before, but i'm obsessed with it now. there are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i don't have time to read, mean i might as well listen. if i want to catch up on the news or history or learn what's going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. because i listened to her story over and over again, i made the decision to go ahead and follow my own dream, which was to help other veterans. i think there's like 180 books in my, in my library now. it changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. it's true, it's so true. to start your free 30-day trial, just text listen17 to 500500. labor day is the start of the final stretch of the campaign season. today both vice president candidates were in the state of wisconsin. vice president pence held a campaign event there where he delivered remarks on the economy. senator harris is in milwaukee. and expected to deliver remarks soon. at the end of a round table event. this stops in wisconsin light the importance of the state. where donald trump won by less than 1% in 2016. that was less than 23,000 votes. here with more on the state of the state race. 57 days out. is national political correspondent. who is at the big board. you have the general election average. i hope you'll tell me more about the battleground states including wisconsin. which trump barely won. >> we'll start here. let's work from the 30,000 foot view down to wisconsin. i say this because the national polling shows you can see it here, about a 7 point lead for joe biden. one thing to keep in mind when you see the number now and over the next few months of course, clinton won the pop lay vote by a couple points in 2016. trump won the electoral college. that means when you see a national poll a 7 point lead for biden. you can expect the key wing states will be a tick or two closer than that. this is what the swing states look like right now. these were six states trump won in 2016 by varying margins. six states biden in the polling lead and you can see the average lead in the states. it varies. in each one of the states, it is a point, several points closer than the national average. that's a dynamic to keep in mind. in the weeks and two months ahead. we mention wisconsin. one of the three states where it was a fraction of a point. three states trump won by less than one. they hadn't gone for a republican since 1980s. democrats like the prospects. look closely at wisconsin. that's where the candidates are today. that's the one when the trump campaign has been saying between the republican convention and the events on on the ground in kenosha. they can get movement in. and thought they would have movement in. here's the poll in wisconsin. before the convention. before kenosha. the margin for bide in the poll was six points. a new poll. we have the same pollster. right before the convention in wisconsin. before kenosha. now you have six. in that poll, unchanged. the average in wisconsin all the different polls is right around there. that's a troubling sign if you're the trump campaign. so much about wisconsin being a ground zero for the message. in terms of battle for 2070. those three states the margin less than ha point in 2016. polls put biden up. if those states flip, and nothing else changes on this map, you can take a look here what happens. if biden flips those three he wins. 278. if nothing else changes. >> you're so good. i had a question. you answered them all as you went through that. thank you. such a small margin for the president in 2016. it's not going to take much for joe biden to turn it back around. if all things stay the same. thanks so much. and we have much more still ahead. coming up at the top of the hour. the ongoing fall out from the piece in the atlantaic about trump and the mill taur. military. robinhood believes now is the time to do money. without the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. tonight on "all in" -- >> if that's how you talk about our veterans, you have
good evening, and welcome to "politics nation." tonight's lead, american flood. we only have a handful of "politics nation" shows after this one. that is a handful before election day. and two weeks out, it would be easy to fixate on the president's seemingly insurmountable deficit in polling and start popping champagne or in my case sipping tea. because in addition to his self-inflicted injuries which would seem to compromise the bulk of his presidency, the pandemic has resurged and the economy appears to be stalling ahead of the holidays. of course, we mentioned the polls but we know they aren't perfect predictors. what does send a tangible message is a vote. and some 22 million americans have already cast their ballots, a sign generally read as being in democrats' favor. so can president trump win re-election? what does that win look like? because national numbers tidy and comforting as they are, mean nothing. if anything the pandemic has exposed, fully exposed the philosophical differences between states on key issues and you shouldn't expect that not to reflect at the ballot box. of course, the president has never been above manipulating those differences at the grossest possible times. and last night in michigan, a state struggling like many with the pandemic, where the governor was allegedly targeted for murder by racist terrorists, he showed up. >> what you're doing in michigan has been amazing. now, you got to get your governor to open up your state. okay. >> lock her up. lock her up. >> lock them all up. >> we'll get into what michigan means for the country shortly. but it's sunday. so we start with that near biblical flood of early voting that just might rinse out the white house. joining me now is the governor of oregon, kate brown. thank you for coming on with us this evening, governor. let me ask you, what is the predictions and the outlook of voting in your state? let's start there. >> thank you, reverend sharpton. appreciate the opportunity. oregon has been voting by mail for more than two decades now. it's absolutely safe. people don't have to put their health or their safety on the line to participate in this process. and it's nonhackable. there's a paper ballot. so you can replicate, verify the results. so we had historic turn out in our primary in may and i expect the same thing in november. >> now, are you of concern when you hear what has happened to your colleague, governor in the state of michigan, being targeted by militia groups? you've had in your state, portland with all kind of allegations made by the president and others that people in oregon, that i've worked with in the civil rights community say, don't represent at all what's happening with the 99% of the people in oregon. are you concerned at all, as governor, about these groups possibly being in oregon and being anywhere in the country where any governor is targeted like this? >> absolutely. there's no question that this president has blamed the divisions of hatred and violence in this country. it's absolutely unacceptable. there is no question he is calling white supremacists to action with his statements stand back and stand by to the proud boys. this is absolutely unacceptable. white supremacy in this country is absolutely unacceptable. i am so committed to making sure that every eligible american votes during this election cycle. this election is like no other and we all have to participate. each one of us, every eligible american needs to make sure that their voice is heard, that they have a plan to vote and that you take action early. >> before i run out of time, madame governor, i know you and i share a voter access as a passion point. so i want to bring you, specifically, to talk access and security in the election. how will you try to secure that in the state of oregon? >> we've had extensive experience with vote by mail. many oregonians know they need to get their ballots in early. and because it's paper, we can replicate and verify the results. so every signature on the ballot is checked. there's an electronic system to ensure that the ballot is yours. and then we audit the results of every single election to ensure the security and integrity. but what's most important this election cycle is that people, across the country, eligible oregonians exercise this fundamental right to vote. i literally won my first race for election by 7 votes. i am living proof that your vote really does matter and i'm committed as the oregon governor to make sure that every single ballot is counted this election cycle and i'm working to help governors and secretaries of state across the country to ensure the integrity of our election system. >> you won by how many votes? >> seven. >> wow, i wanted you to repeat that. that does show you are a living example and you per son fie, every vote does count. thank you, governor kate brown. joining me now is congresswoman debbie dingle -- i'm sorry the governor of oregon was just with us. let me ask you congresswoman dingle, when you look at your state, this is your governor on "meet the press" this morning responding to the president's attacks on her yesterday where people were chanting lock her up. look at this. >> it's incredibly disturbing that the president of the united states, ten days after a plot to kidnap, put me on trial and execute me, ten days after that was uncovered, the president is at it again and inspiring and incentivizing and inciting this kind of domestic terrorism. it's wrong. it has got to end. it is dangerous, not just for me and my family but for public servants everywhere. >> how do you respond, congresswoman, to the president's behavior and the kind of acrimony we're seeing by some that were in your state and that many are concerned about when you're talking about terrorist, white supremist groups, talking about kidnapping and possibly harming or murdering your governor? >> reverend sharpton, it's always good to see you and be with you. i was with the governor this afternoon, i want you to know, i'm proud to call her a friend and she is steady, strong and consistent. but she's not afraid to speak out, and neither am i. the fact of the matter is, this pitting us against each other has got to stop. what he did yesterday was unacceptable, having been the target of some of that viciousness, those words that hurt and have consequences, i know what it's like to be the target, and it's scary and it doesn't need to be. he's the leader of the united states of america. his job is to bring us together. not to pit us against each other. and we need him to do that. so by coming here to michigan and doing what he did, throwing ke kerosene on a fire, we don't need that. we need a healer to stop this division. >> even if you don't have the moral character that one should have, which i and others have raised about the president for decades, you would think it is not politically wise to go and try to appeal to suburban women while you do this to a woman governor of a state. i don't even understand the political calculus that he is thinking that he's doing by giving some kind of attack like this to a governor who is a woman, who just ten days ago, it was uncovered by law enforcement was targeted for kidnapping and possib possible harm. >> it doesn't make sense but the president has -- goes after a number of women. and actually, a number of them happen to be from michigan. i want to tell you about my governor and why what he does angers so much. she called me after she had been briefed about the number of people that could die in michigan. she felt the moral responsibility for the lives of michiganaders, she said debbie i have to do tough things. i said i have your back. she was focused on keeping people safe, stopping community spread and keeping people alive. and everything she's done has been focused on that. and if the president -- i'm sorry, i'm going to say it, would wear a damn mask he could save thousands of lives. instead he's pitting us against each other, that's not leadership. and it doesn't win votes with suburban women. we have two weeks less, i believe we have to work our blanks off until election day. >> now the latest poll in your state has joe biden up eight points over president trump, 48% to 40%. but with this increase in far right violence, specifically this plot to kidnap your governor, how concerned are you about the next two and a half weeks? >> i'm very concerned about the next two and a half weeks for a variety of reasons, the michigan militia is always a presence here. remember one of the worst incidents of domestic terrorism in this country was the oklahoma bombing done by michigan militia. the secretary of state made it clear guns cannot be brought to the polling place. we have people on all sides working to ensure the polling places are safe. but we have an increase of covid right now. the numbers are increasing by great numbers. i don't want people to be afraid to go to the polls because they're afraid of covid. we can vote by mail now. that's the most important thing, every person should vote. >> all right. thank you, as always for being with us congresswoman, dingle. joining me now is republican strategist rinne shaw and former obama aide chris lu. when you see the president continuing this attack, lock her up, it started with hillary clinton, now we have another woman, i for the life of me can't figure out, lock her up for what? were they talking about if the kidnappers, the militia group had been successful in bringing her, putting her on trial, are they saying they should lock her up? i mean, lock her up for what? you certainly don't want to lock her up for trying to enforce the safety of the citizens of michigan. >> you know, rev, the words of a president matter. when you have a president like donald trump who has called on his supporters to liberate states like michigan and virginia, it is not surprising that some people have, you know, taken him up on his offer. this is important. as you said, the governor of michigan has tried to balance public health and the economy. we now know we are in the third wave of this pandemic, and it is starting to rage across midwestern and northern states. and so this idea that the governor of michigan, again agree or disagree with her posture, should be threatened in any way, that she should be locked up in any way, i think is just another example of this president crossing democratic norms and how he's inciting his supporters to commit violence and he's a divisive figure we don't need in this country any longer. >> what is the politics of this when you hear this, rinne, from the president of the united states? certainly i don't think it helps him as he tried at other rallies to appeal to suburban women. who is he playing to here with those chants and with his being less than forceful against qanon and other extreme elements now that seem to be getting credibility from him? >> he's singing opera to the far right is what he's doing. he knows it. he knows in 2016 that lock her up chant was so popular, it was on shirts, on hats, something that the president became known for. this is why he goes back to his same old playbook. i wanted to say something important here, many women, including myself, saw trump's election in 2016 as a threat to women's rights. with defeating hillary clinton i saw a real rebuke of women's power because this president has a problem with powerful women. no mistake about it, he is not the champion of women he purports to be and his family makes him out to be. the women for trump group have been on the road this entire pandemic going out saying how this president has put hundreds of women in powerful positions -- >> these are women for trump groups? you're a republican strategist. these are women for trump groups out on the road saying this against the president? >> oh, yeah. katrina peerson, laura trump have been in states like florida, all other the country, these are women that are related to him or work for his administration or campaign all going out there saying this guy is a wonderful man, you should trust him for his business instincts, he's a champion of women and he calls it like he sees it. what they see and what governor whitmer experienced at the words of this president is just business as usual. they don't see it as problematic. they don't see it as inciting violence, which it is. they don't see it as donald trump reinforcing how much of a -- how he feels threatened and how much of a problem he has with a powerful woman. they see it as him criticizing somebody for their leadership and making no qualms about whether they're a woman or male. that's how they see it in their own brains. they can't see what's wrong because it's been four years of this being normalized. they know that nobody has really challenged them. the polls are now telling us, we know there's a real appetite out there for kamala harris, since she was given the vp nod women are feeling energized. we're feeling there's a plan perhaps ahead of us for this pandemic and how our nation will deal with it. we know that powerful women in this country have helped lead it through its darkest times. so this president should be sitting scared, running scared, because powerful women are going to seize the day next month. >> chris, i can't help but to think of if president barack obama, who you worked in his administration, had done any of these things, there would have been impeachment proceedings. i mean, having political rallies on the lawn of the white house to all the way to being soft, in terms of denouncing supremacy groups, the double standard here of even a lot of the media on the right and the republican leadership in the senate, the si silence is astounding. >> we can consume this entire hour cataloging the destruction of democratic norms the way that the president has sold out our country to adversaries. the way he's codyed up to dictator dictators, given tax cuts to his friends, used government to enhance his own business. but fundamentally what the election is is about leadership. and donald trump has failed leadership in the most crucial way which is to keep americans safe. we're up to about 215, 220,000 people who have died from the pandemic. we're in the midst of a historic economic recession and what is the president's answer to this? he continues to hold the superspreader rallies around the country endangering his supporters. yesterday he was in wisconsin, a state this past week had the highest number of covid cases they have had. the highest number of hospitalizations and the highest positivity rates. this is a president who continues to disavow sensible public health guidelines. as you pointed out, is now attacking public officials who are trying to find that right balance between public health and the economy. it's simply inexcusable and one of the reasons he's so far down in the polls right now. >> while many of us are focused on politics and the pandemic this week, the supreme court on tuesday cut the census short by two weeks and on friday said it reviewed the trump administration effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from congressional representation. what are the president and those around him up to with the census and what can be done to stop them? >> i would say -- >> for me or rinne? >> i'm going to -- go ahead. >> i just -- it's very clear to me, he doesn't want certain communities to be counted. he doesn't want to embrace the fact that america has changed in what it looks like in his lifetime. it's hard for him to accept that. so communities of color if they don't get counted in the census, which we know a lot of lower income communities are not going to. the people are not going to fill out the census. there have been massive public compani compani compa campaigns. i hope people understand how important it is, it's only done once every ten years. but he knows the communities of color will not do this and will not be counted so why not take the step. they'll do anything to count us out. >> chris? on the census, you were getting ready to say something? >> let me echo what rinne said. this is an effort to undercount people, to deny funding to cities and states with large numbers of people of color, immigrants. but more importantly in this effort to take undocumented people out of the census for apportionment purposes it's an effort to try to skew the voting in this country to ensure that states don't get their representation. and frankly, it's a blatant violation of the clear wording of the constitution that says that everybody has to be counted. and it's one of the reasons why the supreme court is taking this up. we can only hope that even in a supreme court that will be divided by a 6-3 majority with a 6-3 conservative majority that they will even understand that what the president is doing is a violation of the constitution. >> many people don't realize it's a redistricting year. that's the most important thing. >> we'll have to live with the results for ten years. this is as serious as it gets in terms of resources in our communities that need it the most. thank you rinne shaw and chris lu, i have to leave it there. coming up, voters in the state of georgia are shattering early vote records defying multiple voter suppression tactics to stand in line for hours, if need be. why are they doing that? i'll explain next. first my colleague richard lieu with today's top stories. >> good afternoon. europe is suffering from what has been dubbed coronavirus fatigue after weeks of loosened restrictions cases continue to rise and new rules being put in place. in paris bars and restaurants must be closed from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. in london, residents cannot socialize indoors with anyone outside of their own household. the uk hit over 700,000 confirmed cases of covid-19. u.s. cases surging toward a third peak. more than 70,000 new infections reported friday. making it the single highest day increase since july. cases now surpassed the 8.1 million mark, the death toll at 220,000. more "politics nation" with reverend sharpton right after the break. h reverend sharpton right after the break. look here, it's your very own all-in-one entertainment experience: xfinity x1. it's 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. for this week's gotcha. i'd like to turn my attention to georgia and the two huge senate races under way right now. let's start with the peach state's senior senator david purdue who disrespected his colleague and current vice presidential nominee, kamala harris, this friday. >> and kamala orca ma or kamalala, whatever. >> his office released a statement that he mispronounced senator harris' name and he didn't mean anything by it. but it's more than a slip of the tongue. they've been colleagues for three years now, and they both serve on the budget committee and they know how to pronounce her name. he was trying to other-ize her to make her seem somehow less american. but i've got news for senator purdue, kamala harris is the american dream personified. and purdue's bigotry was named and shamed on twitter, with the trending hashtag is, my name is. dozens of celebrities joined in, sharing the meaning of their names with pride and calling out purdue for his racist doing whistling. if you think he deserve it is benefit of the doubt, i would give it to him if it wasn't such a pattern of behavior. including this summer when his campaign ran an ad that was viewed as anti-semitic. it showed his competition who is jewish with a larger nose. and neither purdue nor georgia's senator kelly loughlin, speak up at the president's racism. the silence from the peach state senators following the president tweeting a white supporter shouting white power, what's going on? loughlin has her own bigotry to defend. as part owner of the atlanta nba team, she criticized the involvement in black lives matter, leaving her players to openly campaign for her opponent on the court. but georgians are no longer responding to these kinds of racist behaviors from either of them. recent polling from quinnipiac. shows ossoff leading perdue by 6 points. and lo,effler has slipped into third place. other polling suggests the races remain tight. but one thing is clear, georgia is no longer the reliably red state it was. so republicans should be concerned that georgians are shattering early vote records to find multiple voter suppression tactics, to stand in line for hours if need be. and senators, if you think these people are lined up to cast their ballots in support of your dog whistles, bigotry or your president, well, bless your heart and i gotcha. tem. we created bionic and put the word out with godaddy. what will you change? make the world you want. try optum perks. it's a new way to save up to 80%. and everyone can do it. it's from optum, a health care company that's trusted by millions of people. you don't have to sign up for anything. just go to optumperks.com. and get a coupon to use at your pharmacy. that's it. i opted in. i opted in. you can, too. opt in and save big today. harris: this election is about and i building this country you can, too. back better. and that's what joe and i will do. we'll create millions of jobs, bring back critical supply chains so the future is made in america. build on the affordable care act. offer caregivers the dignity, the respect, and the pay they deserve. we have a chance to choose a better future for our country. who's sujoe biden.rop 15? biden says, "every kid deserves a quality education and every family deserves to live in a safe, healthy community. that's why i support prop. 15." vote yes. schools and communities first is responsible for the contents of this ad. who's supkamala harris.5? harris says, "a corporate tax loophole has allowed billions to be drained from our public schools and local communities. no more. i'm proud to support prop 15." vote yes. schools and communities first is responsible for the content of this ad. early voting is under way in tennessee and voters shattered the first day early voting record. according to the tennessee secretary of state's office during the first three days of early voting, there was a 54% increase in turn out compared to 2016. an 88% increase compared to 2012. davidson county, where nashville is located, has seen a staggering 120% surge in early voting since the last presidential election. but will this turn out be enough to flip the ruby red state to blue? joining me now is democratic senate candidate marquita bradshaw, the first black woman candidate for senate by a major party in tennessee. thank you for being on ms. bradshaw. let me go right to it. your primary win was historic. you are the first black female to become a candidate for senate by a major party in tennessee. tennessee is a deep, red state. what do you hope voters will see in you? >> well, i want to dispel the myth, tennessee is not a red state. when it comes to votiing we ran last. now we have a million voters registered to vote who are engaged in the process and ready to go vote at the polls. people are lining up around our grass roots movements because they want change. these people are actually going to go to actual vote early and actually flip this state. >> now in august, tennessee's governor billie sign lee signed that threatened the right to vote if people are caught protesting on property. how concerned are you about voting in your home state and across the country right now? >> right now there's been issues with voter suppression, not only here in tennessee but also over the country. what we need to do is just show up and show up in numbers. and that's how you make sure that people's voices are heard. right now we're going to win this election the same way we won the primary. that's by grass roots organiz g organizing. i've been an organizer for 20 years on environmental equity -- i mean, environmental justice, education equity, labor rights and also tax reform. and we are creating a movement in tennessee that's going to flip the state. >> the things that you have represented, you are in a race to fill lamar alexander's senate seat, who's not running for re-election after assuming office in 2003, i believe it was. the last time alexander ran he beat the democratic challenger in a landslide by 30 points, the former governor of your state and a democrat ran against republican marsha blackburn in 2018 and lost. what has changed in the last two years to show that this time voters are ready for a democratic victory? >> we have more voters engaged in the political process. we have people wanting a change. and participating. and we've been building this grass roots organization of voters across the state of tennessee that's diverse in demographics, as far as religions, culture and also location. tennessee has 95 counties. and we have been to just about all of them -- i've been to all of them individually. and officially we have about 15 more that we actually do public events in. but right now, it's about people wanting change and you -- this is one of those elections that you cannot buy. we won in the primary with $22,000 and we will win again. we raised over $1 million. and right now it is what voters want, they want change. they want healthy and safe communities. they want environment free of racism and they want to move towards education equity and an economy that works for working families. >> all right. thank you for being with us this evening. still ahead, electoral enthusiasm collides with voter suppression. we'll talk to la tasha brown, cofounder of black voters matter as early voting gets under way. be right back. way be right back. but when i started seeing things, i didn't know what was happening... so i kept it in. he started believing things that weren't true. i knew something was wrong... but i didn't say a word. during the course of their disease around 50% of people with parkinson's may experience hallucinations or delusions. but now, doctors are prescribing nuplazid. the only fda approved medicine... proven to significantly reduce hallucinations and delusions related to parkinson's. don't take nuplazid if you are allergic to its ingredients. nuplazid can increase the risk of death in elderly people with dementia-related psychosis and is not for treating symptoms unrelated to parkinson's disease. nuplazid can cause changes in heart rhythm and should not be taken if you have certain abnormal heart rhythms or take other drugs that are known to cause changes in heart rhythm. tell your doctor about any changes in medicines you're taking. the most common side effects are swelling of the arms and legs and confusion. we spoke up and it made all the difference. ask your parkinson's specialist about nuplazid. ♪ ♪ turn me around ♪ turn me around >> this is about power. this is about our power and ultimately when we show up, we win. >> with early voting under way across the country, people are certainly showing up and it would be tempting to see the long lines in places like texas, north carolina, and georgia, mainly as evidence for voter enthusiasm. but while that's certainly part of the picture. these videos show something far more nefarious, voter suppression. at 2019 study showed that long waits to vote are extremely targeted to black neighborhoods with residents waiting on average 29% longer to cast their ballots and far more likely than other voters to spend more than 30 minutes waiting. joining me now is latasha brown cofounder of black voters matter. she's been on a bus tour, getting voters out. in fact, you're talking to me from a bus right now, i believe, you made a bus stops in georgia, tennessee, alabama and florida. how does the tour help to get the vote out, and where are you headed next? >> so we're in mississippi actually as i'm speaking to you. we have 35 cars on the caravan, working in canton, mississippi on our way to jackson. we've been to 11 states so far. what we've been finding is that people are frustrated, but people are determined. everywhere we've been going we've been seeing energy from black voters, they're determined to go out to vote. we were in houston on monday, they broke a record. it was the largest early voting day they've had in the history of elections in houston. so while we've been seeing a resiliency and excitement we've seen voter suppression when we see lines that's indicative of voter suppression, and restrictions instead of expanding voting access at a time we need it during covid-19. we were in alabama this weekend a couple of days and we saw on line you had early voting for the first time we had to sue the state of alabama to make sure there were two days there on the 24th and then -- i mean, this weekend and next weekend from 9:00 to 1:00, why not extend that to 5:00, at 1:00 there was still 100 plus people in line who were turned around. so what we're finding in the states they're restricting access instead of expansion. we went to galveston, texas and on the ballot there were three seats for judgeships left off the ballot currently held by republican incumbents. so we're seeing voter suppression in a myriad of ways. in georgia, there were voters who were out there working -- there was a white woman who pulled a gun in albany, georgia. so voter intimidation. >> in albany, georgia this happened? >> with our vote on yesterday. we had to call the police on the white woman that actually -- she said she was being harassed and next thing she pulled out a gun on people out there providing water and snacks to folks waiting in line. >> now, the supreme court gutted the voting rights act in 2013. i was in the courtroom for the oral arguments with martin luther king iii, and john lewis was there. and since the death of john lewis, democrats have been working to pass a new one through congress. that was part of the two issues we raised at the huge march on washington at the end of august. do you think local activism has a place in pushing this fight to get a new john lewis voting rights bill through the senate as we vote on many senate races, local activism, should they be raising that issue about voting rights and this congress and senate ought to commit to that as part of the reason people should or should not vote for them? >> absolutely. i'm a native of selma, alabama even on this weekend, there was an elder i was voting with who said she was concerned that her vote wouldn't count that's why she was coming out early. local activists, voter suppression doesn't just affect the presidential election but all throughout the ballot. just as i raised what happened in galveston, texas. we need americans, we need folks who believe in democracy, putting pressure on the senate right now on mitch mcconnell's desk is the voting rights -- the john lewis reparations voting rights act. so local activists do have a role in pushing and making sure that our elected officials enforce that. >> now, you know, when you say that -- because most people don't know, when i was a kid, i was born and raised in brooklyn, new york. but when i joined the movement at 12, it was always local activists that started moves that became national. it was not the other way around. and it was some of those out of the south that came to brooklyn and taught me that song you have now innovated, don't let nobody turn you around. you connect to my heart with that. i was probably the only one walking around brooklyn humming that and i was in high school. that's what we need voters to do whoever they vote for. my mother was from alabama she used to say whomever you vote for, don't you let nobody turn you around. >> we need to be honest about what we're facing right now. we are literally facing how are we going to push and save democracy in this country. the voter suppression i am witnessing in this election, in my 49 years of life, i have never seen it. i've never seen it. the truth of the matter is, there's a group of bad actors in this country that are afraid that they're losing because they don't have power, because they don't have the people on their side. so fundamentally we should be organizing from the ground up. change always happens from local organizers from the ground up. that's how selma ignited a movement that changed the world. it was in local communities and local activists. so that's where the power is. that's why it's important for us. >> one fight should literally be voter suppression. >> it was amelia and the local folks that started that movement that changed the world. >> that's right. >> latasha brown, thank you for being with us as you ride. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. next, my final ths stay with us it was built on blue-collar, hard work. hard work means every day. getting it right. it's so iconic, you can just sit it on a shelf if it's missing, you know it. your family, my family, when they drink that coffee, and go "man, that's a good cup," i'm proud because i helped make that cup. ♪ diabetes and raised triglycerides,... ...vascepa can give you something to celebrate. ♪ vascepa, when added to your statin,... ...is clinically proven to provide 25% lower risk from heart attack and stroke. vascepa is clearly different. first and only fda approved. celebrate less risk. even for those with family history. ♪ don't take vascepa if you are... ...or become allergic to icosapent ethyl or any inactive ingredient in vascepa. serious side 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about how people died to give blacks the right to vote. to give women the right to vote. to break down the barriers of those that would deny us the democratic principles. goodman, cheney, and swerner, two jews in a black war killed, mowed down with their eyes open in the mississippi delta registering people to vote. a woman came from michigan, a white female, viola louisa died to give us the right to vote. medgev was killed in his driveway in mississippi, died in a pool of blood as he was going around jackson, mississippi, to getting people to vote. nobody's shooting you, they're not bombing your churches. just a little determination for you to go and vote and some of us too lazy and ungrateful to exercise what some people gave it all to give us the right to have. we cannot make any excuses. don't let nobody turn you around. it's time to rise up. that's why i came out with this book just two weeks ago in time for the election. it's "rise up" time. sitting down is not an option. not standing up for your children, for yourself, for your place in history to say, when it counted, i was there, and i did what was right. i voted. i'll be right back. it's still warm. ♪ thanks, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate. pay less, when you drive less. you've never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. unlike ordinary memory want supplements-ter? neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin that does it for me. thanks for watching. and by the way, you can now hear "politics nation" and the latest breaking news from all of your favorite msnbc hosts, listening to msnbc live on tunein. go to tunein.com/msnbc 2020 to listen commercial free with tunein premium. i'll see you back here next weekend at 5:00 p.m. eastern. up next, my colleague, alicea menendez picks up our news coverage. >> thanks, as always, reverend sharpton. i'm alicea menendez, live in miami, florida, a state always critical to election day, which is now just over two weeks away. in this final stretch, both candidates are on the trail. donald trump remains on the attack ahead of a week that brings us their final debate. and a final pitch by joe biden, for a man who knows a thing or two about being president. also tonight, covid numbers spiking again, almost no state is immune. hospitals fear what's coming and how that feeling of being over it is leading to more americans getting it. plus, democracy is working. we are hours away from this crucial battleground kicking off early in-person voting, as ballots fill to the brim in states we did not expect and in numbers on
nominated, rejecting a bid to overturn the election results in key states. why it signals the end of the line for his push to reverse defeat. the president reacting overnight. good morning, everybody. it's saturday, december 12th. i'm lindsey reiser. >> and i'm kendis gibson, live from msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's a glasses sort of day, open collar sort of saturday. >> i love it! keeping it cas. >> but this is a huge deal! >> huge. >> this is a huge day ahead of us, we've been waiting for this for months. >> britain called it v-day. >> we have a team of analysts following every major development of these breaking news stories. >> first, we begin with the moment everybody has been waiting for, fda approving the pfizer vaccine. fedex and u.p.s. now gearing up to distribute it across the country as soon as today. two fierce rivals working together along with health officials and the faa to make sure the precious cargo gets top priority during what's already the busiest time of the year for shipping companies. the latest from fedex world hub in memphis, msnbc reporter cory kaufman. fedex has years of experience shipping vaccines, including the flu vaccines, over 80 million doses to combat h1n1 in 2009. what are the plans here to ship the pfizer vaccine? >> reporter: yeah, and this is going to be something that, even though they do have those years of experience, lindsey, this is something just that dwarfs that in scale. this is going to be the most massive operation in the company's history. they tell us they've hired some 170,000 seasonal workers to get this done. and what does that look like? you mentioned that historic partnership. so, fedex is going to take on the west, and u.p.s. is going to take on the east. now, the vaccine is going to start at pfizer's distribution centers in michigan and wisconsin. it will then come either here to fedex's hub in memphis or to the u.p.s. hub in louisville. from there, it will get on cargo planes, it will get on trucks, and it will begin its journey toward its destinations as quickly as possible. how do you do that safely and quickly? well, you prioritize those shipments, so faa will be prioritizing all of those specific plane shipments. you keep them separate from what you and i are buying online for the holiday season. these shipments will be tracked. in fact, there's also going to be u.s. marshals service escorting all of these shipments, just to add that extra layer of security. and of course, guys, remember that these vaccines have to be kept at minus 94 degrees. so not only are they packaged in very special containers from pfizer, but then companies like fedex also have specialty added layers to make sure that nothing happens to the temperature, for example, cold chain centers. u.p.s. also has something interesting. they have kind of a four-radio system, where they track it, they check on the lighting, they check on the temperature, and they check on the motion of each and every single one of their packages. so, these two companies, because this is such a monumental and historic task for them, they had to answer some questions on capitol hill. listen in to what fedex's leader said how they were going to get all this done. >> fedex has a long history of supporting critical relief efforts around the world, and we are ready for the challenge ahead. we also regularly carry vaccines for commercial and government organizations, both domestic and international. our health care team has been able to leverage this experience, flex our comprehensive network, and work with various stakeholders to build customized solutions to achieve our collective goal -- moving covid-19 vaccine shipments as safely, securely, and quickly as possible. this is who we are and what we do. >> reporter: all right, so, smith insisting that fedex and u.p.s. can carry this burden solely, despite other companies, including airline companies, offering to help distribute within the united states. guys, it looks like they will take that offer internationally, but when it comes to specifically here in the u.s., those two companies, u.p.s. and fedex, are trying to take that burden on. and also, just one added note. pfizer right now currently has some 6 million vaccines ready. they have to ramp that up to some 600 million, because, of course, each person, if each person ideally gets it, they need two doses. guys? >> cori, it's so important to know these companies are already in place, but the scale, as you mentioned right now, pretty unprecedented. cori coffin, thanks. william hasseeltine is infectio disease expert and author of the book "my lifelong fight against disease." >> the fda says the benefits of the pfizer vaccine outweigh all of the potential risk we've been reading about. do you agree, especially in light of the uk's warning, after two of the people who got the vaccines, they had known severe allergies and they had adverse reactions? >> well, i certainly agree. i listened to the deliberations of the panel that was advising the fda, and it's clear that the panel believed that because of the seriousness of the threat -- as you know, 3,000 people a day now are dying of this disease, and there's no other real remedy -- that it was worth taking a risk. they know that there's a risk, because this hasn't been fully vetted. that's why it's an emergency use authorization. the fda has also taken under and advised the company that they must do very tight surveillance of any possible adverse effect that occurs during the vaccination period. there will be some questions as to who should not get the vaccine and who should, but those details are yet to come. >> yeah, so, we have those health care workers and nursing home residents that are at the front of the line for the first coronavirus shots. 24 million americans in all right there. when do you see the average american making it to the front of the line for a vaccine, and would that signal a return to normal? >> it's going to be some time, probably late spring, early summer, before most people have access to the vaccine. that will return the country to something like near normal, but we have to remember that this infection is rampant all over the world and that we have to be prepared for new infections coming in, and we hope that this vaccine lasts long enough. there are some questions that still remain outstanding. amongst those is how long the vaccine works, and does the vaccine prevent infection, not only disease? so, these are questions that will only be revealed with time as more and more people get the vaccine. >> doctor, as you know, when we go out into the street and talk to people about their comfort level, a lot of people say, i still wouldn't be first in line to take it. but dr. fauci told our colleague, ari melber, he will take the vaccine publicly once it's available to him. and he also said that trump and biden should, too. let's listen first. >> i think it would be a good idea to get the vaccine publicly so that the rest of the country who is, you know, wedded one way or the other to a particular person, will feel, if that person gets the vaccine, then i'll get it, too. so, i'm not going to give them a date, but i'm sure that they're considering getting it publicly. >> you know, doctor, i want to ask if you think this will help curb people's anxiety, but also, as kendis pointed out at the beginning of the show, we've been talking to you for months about this pandemic. this is big news today, the day after the vaccine gets fda approval. talk to us about also your thoughts of hope right now. >> well, this is a great day for humanity. it's not just for the united states. this vaccine was developed in collaboration with a german company. we are the sixth country to approve a vaccine. there are other countries that have been right on track developing vaccines along with us, and they're approved for use in other countries as well, developed by other manufacturers. but it's a great day for humanity because there is finally hope at the end of a very, very difficult time. we're not out of the woods yet, as all of us know. it's going to take a long time, maybe five, six months, before the full effects of the vaccine take place. and in the meantime, we're going to see a lot of people fall ill, and unfortunately, many people die. and the best thing we can do is to follow the public health guidance that we've been given -- wear masks, social distance, don't travel, stay as safe as you possibly can. so, we're in for some trouble, but at least it looks like there's hope not only for the united states but people around the world. >> doctor, i do want to follow up on exactly what you were saying there. you were saying five to six months before we're out of the woods, but the next few months will be really, really rough. in fact, the cdc is warning that we could see more deaths per day than 9/11 for as many as 90 days. why is the united states leading the world in cases and deaths? >> well, that's a deep and complicated question. it has to do with leadership of the country. it has to do with the way we govern our public health system. and it has to do with individual preferences. as we all know, we're a nation that values individual freedoms and individual rights. and in all societies, there's a balance between the individual's right to do what they want and the possibility that they'll harm themselves or, in particular, harm others. that's why we have laws against drunk driving. that's why we have many laws that protect people from other people's bad behavior. and our balance is different from other countries. our leadership has been extremely poor, i have to say, over the last year. our governance devolves much responsibility to the states and even to jurisdictions, so things may vary from town to town. we've seen that with the testing. and i'm afraid we're going to see some of that confusion with the vaccines. it may be what you do in one town, who gets the vaccine, is different from what happens in another town, and that's going to lead to some confusion and unhappiness. the other thing that people are going to be worried about is that there's a very limited supply, at least at the beginning, so there's going to be jostling, seeing who's in line for those people, and it's many people who really want this vaccine and want it now. >> doctor, i have one more quick question before we let you go. you mentioned poor leadership. right now, we have a vaccine. it's going to be distributed. people could be getting shots in the arm in the next couple of days. should more be done right now by the administration in terms of a public relations campaign to assure people that it's safe? >> absolutely. you know, people follow leaders. that's what we've learned in this pandemic. leadership is really important. and it's important for our top leaders to demonstrate through taking the vaccine when their turn comes and through giving public assurances that this is something that they should do. this is a problem for the entire country, because if one person in america has the infection, we all might get it. >> all right. dr. william haseltine, thank you so much. i am number 287 million in line for the vaccine. >> second to last? >> i think there are about 50 million americans behind me, thanks to "the new york times" survey, but -- >> yeah, i was the same, according to that simulation. you put in your age, the county you live in, and it kind of tells you where in that long shrinking line you are. >> it doesn't account to whether or not you've had it already, which i haven't, but it gives you a good sense. anyway, president trump called it the big one, but the supreme court rejecting texas' lawsuit seeking to overturn the election in key states. was this the final nail in the coffin? and will trump finally get the message? our political panelists weigh in. and some exciting news here at msnbc. starting today, you can join tiffany cross -- >> whoo! >> -- as she unpacks the news of the week with fresh, diverse voices from a crosssection of thought leaders, elected officials, journalists. they're going to tackle the issues facing the rising majority in this country. >> so excited. >> and how they impact society as a whole. so, join kendis and myself, watch "the cross connection with tiffany cross," premiering today at 10:00 a.m. eastern on msnbc. y at 10:00 a.m. eastern on msnbc before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new? -well, audrey's expecting... -twins! grandparents! we want to put money aside for them, so...change in plans. alright, let's see what we can adjust. ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. okay. mom, are you painting again? you could sell these. lemme guess, change in plans? at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before 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shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. welcome back and to the breaking news. president trump starts this weekend with few, if any, options following a devastating, likely fatal defeat in the courts. the supreme court rejecting the texas-led lawsuit suing four battleground states where joe biden won. the challenge was backed by 126 house republicans and more than a dozen others, and many other states. nbc's josh lederman is in washington, d.c., with the very latest on this. josh, good morning to you. rough morning for the white house and for the president. all three justices that trump appointed ruled against him in this case. >> reporter: well, the order from the court was unsigned, but certainly, none of those three justices nominated by president trump spoke out in a statement to disagree with this decision, as we did see from justices alito, saying that they disagreed with the decision to not even allow texas to file its complaint in this case. and what's so interesting, kendis, it was just a few months ago when justice ruth bader ginsburg died that president trump predicted this very scenario, saying that he wanted to fill that seat, ultimately nominating justice amy coney barrett, because he anticipated that the election might end up in front of the supreme court, and he hoped that this might tip things his way. he was clearly wrong about that. in this instance, it was the second case, really, in front of the supreme court in just a matter of days that was thrown out after that first one in pennsylvania also failed to get any traction. in this particular case, texas was joined by 17 other states that are controlled by republicans in essentially taking issue with how four battleground states -- you can see them there -- wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, and georgia -- conducted their elections, arguing, essentially, that texas' votes were diluted by the fact that governors and election officials in those states changed things to make it easier for people to vote as opposed to a new law being passed to do that. now, the court in its very brief order essentially said, texas has no business telling these other states what they should or shouldn't do with those elections. this is the latest blow to president trump's efforts to try to overturn the results of this election, and the biden campaign clearly welcoming this. but trump, obviously, not very happy about this, speaking out overnight on his favorite medium of twitter, saying "the supreme court really let us down. no wisdom, no courage!" and as we know, kendis, the electoral college set to meet on monday, a really key milestone for proceeding with president-elect biden's victory in this. but if you think the shenanigans are over, i wouldn't hold your breath. rudy giuliani on television overnight saying he is far from done and that the path now runs through the state courts. >> so, they went to the state courts, then the supreme court, and now we're returning to the state courts, okay. >> reporter: it's kind of a throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach, kendis. >> i guess that is the case. we'll see how it plays out. and of course, january 6th, it's all writ out in the u.s. capitol. there will be some more shenanigans there as well. josh lederman joining us from the white house. thank you. joining us now, brian lancea, former spokesperson for the trump transition, and alaw enforcementa johnson, biden campaign consultant. let's start with this -- michigan attorney general dana nessel appeared on "morning joe" earlier in the week and compared trump's moves to the movie "friday the 13th." >> to me, this post-election process has been like a "friday the 13th" movie, you know? and you know, no matter how many times you shoot jason or you stab jason or you electrocute jason, he just keeps on coming back at you over and over again, and he just won't stay down. >> so, brian, i'm going to throw this to you first. kayleigh mcenany says there are ongoing cases. she says the fight for election integrity continues. but legal experts say this is the final nail in the coffin, this isn't about election integrity, it's about overturning the will of the people. where do you stand on this? >> first of all, good morning and thank you for having me and to talk about the jason analogy. you know, he may never die, but we always tune in to watch, and i think that's what most of this is about, that president trump is still part of the "a" block of most cable channels and is garnering everybody's attention. as for the court case, listen, the end is near. you have monday that's a critical day. you know, he's reaching out to electors. i believe they're reaching out to electors through legislatures to try to do that, but there's also a deadline in january, similar to what we saw when the gore supporters came before congress and asked that the u.s. senate, the house of representatives asked that the u.s. senate, you know, not seat president bush. so the process is old. the process is almost near the end, but we still have about, my guess is about three more weeks of this. >> well, alencia, all three justices president trump picked ruled against him. the president correctly predicted the scenario, as josh said, but didn't correctly predict the outcome. what does that tell you? >> you know, it's frustrating that the president and some of his cronies are still throwing a temper tantrum about this election, when, as you all were talking about before this segment, 3,000 americans are dying daily, more than september 11th. and so, he's continuing to throw this temper tantrum, and i would agree with my co-panelist that this isn't over. trump is the king of distraction. that's why rudy giuliani is his chief legal expert over there. and so, what it's telling us is that he's going to find every single way possible to distract from the destruction that he has caused in the four years that he's been in office, and right now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and try to rally up his base, which is really dangerous, because we've seen, they are protesting no masks, they are protesting the election results. they, for some reason, think they can overturn some of the results. and let me remind your viewers in that it was republicans who said they couldn't count absentee and mail-in ballots early, ahead of election day in some of these key states. and now they're trying to say that those votes are illegal because they were counted after election day, but they decided that rule. so, the hypocrisy is there. and unfortunately, a lot of trump's followers and supporters are following that hypocrisy and those conspiracy theories. >> not everybody. brian, the president's taken the bulk of his fight to twitter in the past week, by our count, he's tweeted 199 times, 59% of those were about the election, election fraud, rather. only 8% about covid, to alencia's point, and nearly a third of those tweets were flagged for misinformation. there are sites that track this. the president is losing hundreds of thousands of followers since the election. what do you think right now about his popularity? >> yeah, listen, i think people are having a little bit of a regret. you know, my wife, herself, she voted for president trump this november, and now she's now a month into this -- i think she last, she stated she regrets it. i think that will lapse. you see this every election cycle. bush v. gore, you had people who tried to invalidate the election results there. you had people who didn't even show up to bush's election. you have members of congress who never even acknowledged that bush won re-election. you had the same thing happen with obama. listen, this is a trend that is continuing that's started since bush v. gore. it's a dangerous trend. both sides are playing it. this is the first time that you see republicans playing it so harshly than ever before, and that's the shocking impact about all this. >> brian and alencia, we've got to let it go, but very good conversation. hope to have you back soon. >> hey, alencia, good to see you. as trucks at the pfizer plant in kalamazoo, michigan, prepare to hit the road with their precious cargo, states are waiting. they have the final say on how those vaccines will be rolled out, so how will the vaccine get distributed? it's up to the states, and we have one of the decision-makers for one of the hardest hit states with us, next. ith us, net good morning, mr. sun. good morning, blair. 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[ twig snaps ] stop! it's alright. friend. little girl is lost. i am taking her home. my name is captain kidd. captain. -captain. word is she's that captive out of wichita falls. how much you want for her? this child is not for sale. i wanna get you away from all this pain. [ grunting ] captain. get in the clear of it. ♪ i'll be home for christmas ♪ if only in my dreams ♪ shipments of pfizer's covid-19 vaccine could be rolling out as soon as today, but distrust is still running high in minority and urban communities with many referring to historical medical malpractice as the reason for their anxiety. nbc news correspondent antonia hilton is in chicago with more on this. >> reporter: hey, so, i am on the south side of chicago, and here there is a lot of anxiety around the coming vaccine, some for reasons of current events and others because of historical ones. behind me is mercy hospital, a historic teaching hospital that has served poor and black people on the south side of chicago for generations, and it's slated to close in the new year. residents here say that that's proof that leaders do not care about their access to health care or about their access to things like vaccines. then other people that i've spoken to have been talking a lot about the tuskegee syphilis study. this is an infamous study from the early 20th century. black men were basically watched and studied by white doctors as they got sicker and sicker with syphilis and not given care. and people cite that study and other studies like it when they say that they don't trust doctors or they're worried about vaccines. take a listen to these conversations i had this week. >> for one, everything's about money, you know? i feel like the most understanding disadvantaged folks will be left behind, and who is to say they'll give us the full-fledged vaccine? they may give us a vark version of the vaccine. >> the african-american community is just not trusting because we feel we're the first group they want to test it on and we're being experimented on. >> reporter: it's important to note that was antoine said is not true. there is no generic version of this vaccine and generic drugs are just as effective as brand name drugs when they are developed, but i think it's important to hear what he said there and the fears and how deep-rooted they are. these are not anti-vaxxers. they are not people who think that vaccines cause autism or were radicalized somewhere online. they are afraid because of real events that did happen in history. so, if you're a public health official figuring out how you're going to get this vaccine into black and brown neighborhoods in chicago, that is something you're going to have to acknowledge. back to you. >> all right. our thanks to antonia hylton for that report. now to pennsylvania where the state and state officials are waiting to receive their first vaccine shipment, a potential lifeline for one of the hardest hit states. nbc reports that it now ranks number eight in coronavirus cases. joining me right now is pennsylvania lieutenant governor john fetterman. lieutenant governor, thank you for being here. appreciate it. good morning to you. >> sure. thanks for having me. >> where does your state stand in the process of vaccine distribution? how soon could the most vulnerable get the shot? >> really, as soon as we get it. i mean, the plans are in place. we have a multitiered, stepdown program in place that was coordinated with our office of health equity to determine who should be the very first individuals, the most vulnerable, to get it. and then from there on, there's a step down until eventually we hit phase three, where it's widely available for the general public, essentially anywhere where you can get a shot or a booster here in pennsylvania. so, we're just waiting for the doses. >> and i should point out on the situation there in pennsylvania right now, a few hours ago, the state rolled out new restrictions to stem a record surge in covid-19 cases and hospitalizations. you see the listings right there on the screen. some of the measures include limiting indoor gatherings to ten people, outdoor events limited to 50 people, suspending indoor dining and closing down gyms and other recreational and entertainment facilities. those brand-new restrictions in place for three weeks. i've got to ask, at least here in new york, the majority of the spread has been -- 75% of it -- has been those indoor gatherings. gyms account for only about 0.6%. restaurants, indoor dining, 1.7%. do you feel as if you guys are doing the right thing right there in closing many of those outlets? >> well, the governor here in pennsylvania has always tried to strike the balance between lives and livelihoods. and the truth is, right now, we are rapidly running out of icu beds here in the commonwealth, and we don't ever want to be in a position where people have to be turned away that are presenting symptoms that may otherwise spiral and even die as a result. the governor took these decisive steps. no one's happy about it. no one's enthusiastic about it. but the truth of the matter is, flattening this curve enough so our health care system isn't overwhelmed, until we begin the vaccination process is the rationale behind all of this. and anyone that thinks that the governor or, really, anybody wants to close businesses just not true. we are just overwhelmed with cases right now. >> but all of that said, you're a guy, i've seen your photos. you work out. you go to the gyms. are gyms and indoor dining, restaurants, the key? are those superspreader locations? >> i'm having some technical issues. i didn't catch the last question. but indoor dining and some of these restrictions are really just designed to make sure we attack some of the 80/20 rule that we're going to get most of those hotspots and shut those down so we can contain the spread. >> all right. we're going -- >> we're not talking any massive lockdowns or anything like we saw back in the spring. these are just kind of targeted interventions to make sure that we flatten the curve sufficient enough so our health care system isn't overwhelmed. >> i understand. lieutenant governor john fetterman, we're going to have to leave it there. our thanks to you. appreciate it. after seeing record high voter turnout, georgia republicans want to roll back some of the laws that helped make that happen. and it's leading to renewed calls of voter suppression ahead of the upcoming senate runoffs. plus, at 8:00 a.m., ali velshi speaks with the michigan secretary of state about the latest failed attempt to overturn the results of the election. and the fda is expected to brief the public about its vaccine distribution in less than three hours. we'll bring that to you live. ees we'll bring that to you live this year you got it done. now walmart can help check off your gift list with free curbside pickup, fast delivery from your walmart store, or gifts shipped right to your door. let's end the year celebrating. ♪ let's end the year celebrating. you work hard for your money. stretched days for it. juggled life for it. took charge for it. so care for it. look after it. invest with the expertise of j.p. morgan, either with an advisor or online, through chase. after all, it's yours. chase. make more of what's yours. ♪ you're still the one ♪ that i love to touch ♪ still the one ♪ and i can't get enough ♪ we're still having fun, ♪ and you're still the one applebee's 2 for $20. now that's eating good in the neighborhood. here. the need for food. shelter. compassion. this year, it just happens to be greater. more families than ever are facing poverty. if you need help, please reach out. if you can give help, please reach within. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ spread a little love today ♪ spread a little love my-y way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ philadelphia cream cheese. made with fresh milk and real cream makes your recipes their holiday favourites. the holidays are made with philly. ♪ still warm. ♪ thanks, maggie. oh, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate. pay less when you drive less. you've never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. walmart makes it easy with groceries, gadgets, and soo much icing. let's end the year deliciously. ♪ welcome back, everybody. let's take a look at some of the top headlines this morning. at least six people are recovering after being hit by a car during a protest in new york city yesterday. the driver plowed through a group of about 50 protesters that you see on your screen, calling attention to an i.c.e. detainee's hunger strike after they surrounded the car. all of the people are expected to be okay. no word yet on whether that driver faces charges. a second death row inmate was executed in as many days. last night, alfred baugea died by lethal injection after 15 years on death row for the abuse and murder of his 2-year-old daughter. the justice department plans to continue this unprecedented surge of post-election executions before inauguration day. if you work for the federal government and you were hoping to have christmas eve off, you're in luck. president trump signed an order yesterday to make december 24th a federal paid holiday this year. >> oh! well, that's nice. early voting for georgia's january senate runoffs begin on monday, and president-elect joe biden is stepping in to offer his support. he's going to share both his financial and resources and staff to democratic candidates jon ossoff and raphael warnock. nbc's deepa shivra is at the biden campaign in wilmington, delaware. good morning. how much is the biden campaign actually digging into this campaign? >> reporter: good morning, kendis. that's right. we've already seen the biden campaign step in and start helping out with this georgia runoff election that's coming up on january 5th. i'm just going to go ahead and throw some numbers at you. as of now, the biden campaign with the dnc has already roughly raised -- i'm sorry, roughly spent $5 million in the runoff races and about $10 million raised for both democratic candidates, jon ossoff and reverend raphael warnock. and in terms of staff, they've got about 50 staffers continuing to work in georgia and then about a dozen who are working on the data analytics and tech side of this as well. so, you can see biden stepping up and putting his staff on the ground, using that financial resources that he has to make sure that democrats can have a full show of force in this runoff election. and also, on top of that, we expect to see the president-elect on the ground in georgia, himself, on tuesday, and that's the day after that early voting starts in the state on december 14th. you're going to see biden on the ground there. and basically, democrats from both of these senate campaigns are hoping that they can build off of that momentum from biden's win last month. he was the first democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1992 with bill clinton. and so, what you see from a lot of these operatives off the ground is they're moving off of that momentum. they want to make sure that the folks who turned out to vote last month to vote dramatically will then again turn out the margin, which is still fairly close, so they're really counting on every voter to turn back out again in these next couple weeks. and they're hoping that a visit from joe biden on the ground will really push that forward for them. kendis? >> and you were also at president trump's rally in georgia just last week, a week ago today. what can we expect to be different, you might say, about biden's visit to that state? >> reporter: kendis, it was pretty much a very stark difference in reality. that was actually the first trump rally that i've ever covered, after covering several biden and harris events -- >> always remember you first -- >> reporter: -- as well, you always remember your first. and i think there's two big differences here, right? you -- i mooean, the covid precautions and safety measures taking place are night and day. to see the crowds at trump's rally last weekend, so many people, literally, thousands of people gathered without masks at all was a pretty major difference, i would say, after covering several biden events. and i also think the messaging, kendis, you're going to see from biden is going to be pretty different as well. trump, as with you know, spent a large amount of that rally talking about himself and talking about his own election grievances, rather than focusing on the candidates he was supposed to be stumping for. so, i think you'll see a pretty different message in terms of who biden is really talking about most of the time when he visits on tuesday. >> thank you. biden's visit to the atlanta area comes amid controversy in cobb county, the state's most populous county. officials are adding back two early voting sites after facing a huge backlash from voters there. their initial plan saw the number of locations reduce from 11 to just 5. that move, of course, met with accusations they were trying to restrict black and latino residents from voting. so, latosha brown joins us this morning, co-founder of the black voters matter fund. so good to talk to you about this. calls of voter suppression are not new in georgia, as you're very familiar with. let's show these long lines of people just trying to vote early, ahead of the presidential election. i remember when we were showing this, at the time there were calls of voter suppression. so, is this latest move with the polling sites an attempt to suppress the vote? and what's your reaction to these officials adding back sites? >> absolutely. you know, when you look at the voter suppression, anything that restricts access for people to have free and fair access to the ballot is a form of voter suppression. and so, in a time where we actually need expanded access because of covid-19 -- we know that covid-19, the cases are rising, we know that it's best when people are socially distant, we know that it's best that people have some challenges around how they move around, that this is the moment that we need expanded access. and so, georgia has shown, it has a history of, instead of trying to find ways and expand ways for people to have access to voting, it is actually being very restrictive. and so, i do think that part of what has led to the reopening of a few of the sites back in cobb county has been the outcry that organizations and people in cobb county have said that this is voter suppression, we need to make sure that all communities that have access to the ballot. and so, the reopening of several of those sites, sites that never should have been closed in the first place, are now being reopened, i do believe because of public pressure. >> yeah, and republican legislatures released their plans to change some of the election laws in georgia, including eliminating at-will absentee voting. that's when you don't need an excuse to vote absentee. requiring photo i.d. when requesting absentee ballots. and outlawing drop boxes. these rules were created by republicans in 2005 to make voting more convenient. so, should this really be a time right now when they're rethinking some of these? >> absolutely not. i know part of this is -- part of the problem, it is leike my grandfather would say, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck, right? bottom line is this is voter suppression. this is the very definition of voter suppression. they're, all three of those are attempts to restrict access to people having access to the ballot. and so, what you see is you see the republicans who, i think they have been very fearful because they have been losing ground, but they've been losing ground because they don't necessarily have an agenda that the majority of people in georgia want. we are a state that has been devastated by covid-19. we have not seen the kind of leadership from the republican party around covid-19 in terms of we've had hospitals to close just in the last few months during the pandemic. we've literally seen over 4 million georgians have applied for unemployment. >> yeah. >> we've seen businesses close. and so, i do think that part of what you're seeing for them as a response of not being able to have an agenda for people is to restrict access to those who are voting. >> la tasha brown, thank you for your voice this morning. we appreciate it. after everything that went down in 2020, it's safe to say that we could all go for happily ever after. ♪ >> i know it in my heart, you and kevin are meant to be. >> as we near the holidays, several networks are serving up more than 80 new christmas movies this season alone. why are we attracted to this predictable corniness? >> we all need some corny. >> we all do. after the break. e corny. >> we all do after the break. before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new? -well, audrey's expecting... -twins! grandparents! we want to put money aside for them, so...change in plans. alright, let's see what we can adjust. ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. okay. mom, are 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got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa i do motivational speakingld. we're made for. in addition to the substitute teaching. i honestly feel that that's my calling-- to give back to younger people. i think most adults will start realizing that they don't recall things as quickly as they used to or they don't remember things as vividly as they once did. i've been taking prevagen for about three years now. people say to me periodically, "man, you've got a memory like an elephant." it's really, really helped me tremendously. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. understandably when christmas happens during a pandemic, you can't really go out shopping. and like you normally would. many of us are turning to online shopping and delivery companies are expecting to be stretched. >> yes, and i still got a few things on my list and i'm worried about it getting there on time. i mean my package is going to be competing with three billion packages delivered to american homes this year. that's almost 800 million more than last year. according to "the new york times." so will your gift to your secret santa make it? and small businesses, trying to get a piece of the pie. let's bring in business insider, senior retail reporter, thanks for being with us. good morning. how are delivery companies right now keeping all of their employees safe in this mad rush? >> that's a great question. and thank you so much for having me on, and yes, so yes, shipping, you know, with all of these packages in play, a huge year for e-commerce, and in terms of the employee, social distancing is key, when employees are out delivering these packages, and within the sortsing warehouses, and having protocols, you know, keeping everyone masked, and having sanitation policies, basically. so basically, like any other workplace that is essential, implementing those measures, as we go forward, during this crazy year. >> so a little bit of housekeeping. at least for people who are at home, and planning to buy some gifts for christmas. the u.s. postal service, the last day for ground shipping is tuesday. and friday, for first class mail service. if you want to get it there in time. your last day of priority mail service is december 19th and for express, it's december 23. so should we expect some packages to arrive after christmas, or be delayed with such a huge demand this year? >> i would say yes. not to be christmas grinch, but i think this is a very bad year for us procrastinators. i'm one, unfortunately. this is basically, the shipping major players, like usps, fed ex, u.p.s., they are pretty much stretched to the brink this year. that's despite hiring freeze, that's despite new rules that put a limit on how many packages different retailers can send out. but i would say, i mean it's unfortunate because a lot of these smaller and regional and local retailers really depend on their packages getting in by christmas. to really show the customer that they can be trusted to do this. but unfortunately, it's a bit out of their hands at this point. i mean this is pretty unprecedented. we've seen a decade of e-commerce growth, and basically 90 day, according to shoppers. >> and really quickly, here, there is another industry that is booming during the holidays. take a look. >> this is our second chance, it is written all over it. >> so many great memories. for christmas. >> christmas. it brings out the worst in everything. >> you're such a cheater. >> it's a tough one. ♪ ♪. >> some of this year's new christmas movie releases. 82 christmas movies, release, why is there such a demand for these movies? >> gosh, have you seen them? they're so delightful. we have been talking about a netflix christmas movie romance binge. all of the princess movie, night before christmas, and grinch, and it is a little cottage industry that has exploded in recent years because it basically leaves the studios rolling in more more money than ebenezer scrooge. making a ton of money and everybody wants a piece of the action. >> let's get into the screen play wrighting business. >> we're in the wrong business. i haven't seen any of those christmas movies. >> we'll look at them later. >> thank you. coming up in the next hour, pfizer is ready to roll out the vaccines across the country, we will have correspondents live at distribution centers, and hospitals with the latest. >> coming up at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, oh, my gosh, tiffany cross, as she unpacks the news of the week. she will tackle issues facing the rising majority in this country and how they impact society as a whole. big girl about to collect that check. getting that bag. tiffany. at 10:00. g that bag tiffany. at 10:00 for skin that never holds you back don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin gold 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[ beeping ] you can do better, steve! get a freshly made footlong, from subway®! you can even order on the subway® app! did i just get picked off by deion sanders? you sure did! now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. because it's footlong season™! balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. good morning, everyone. it's a new hour, and first up, on msnbc, a momentous day. top fda officials set to hold a news conference this morning, on the agency's landmark vaccine authorization. setting in motion a complex distribution process shortly after a key vote by cdc advisers to approve pfizer's vaccination. >> it comes at a time when covid-related fatalities increase in the u.s. dr. anthony fauci projecting confidence in the shots while issuing this warning. >> i have looked at the process, i've looked at the data, i'm convinced that this is safe and effective. the vaccine, as promising as it is, it is not going to have a broad public health effect until several months down the line. >> plus, a u.s. supreme court shuts down president trump's long shot to overturn the election. why one republican senator says the nat
completely lies. they're told he could still be the next president. let's go out front. good evening. i'm erin burnett. out front tonight, the breaking news. incoming vice president kamala harris applauding mitch mcconnell for finally acknowledging the next president of the united states. >> i think it's critically important. i applaud mitch mcconnell for talking to joe biden today. you know, it would have been better if it had happened earlier, but it happened. let's move forward. where we can find common purpose and common ground, let's do that. let that be our priority. >> so she's emphasizing the future and moving forward but not standing down on the fact here calling mcconnell out for taking 38 days, 38 days since we've known joe biden won, 38 days it took senator mcconnell to do this. >> the electoral college has spoken so today i want to congratulate president-elect joe biden. >> harris could have gone further. mcconnell's fanning of false claims and lies has done damage. today mcconnell is finally abandoning trump. he took it further than he did there on the floor. he told republicans not to challenge the electoral results taking a stand that that's it. the electoral college is it. we're done here with all of this. this as trump himself essentially not showing up to work at least to do his job. there has been nothing coming from the white house as the nation is now facing the most consequential cyber attack in years according to the director of the nsa. russian hackers suspected of infiltrating, okay, russian hackers, months long attack, the department of homeland security, department of treasury, department of commerce, department of agriculture, nuclear labs and fortune 500 companies all compromised. the full scope of this attack isn't even known but the president of the united states who took this oath. >> preserve, protect, defend. >> the constitution of the united states. >> the constitution of the united states. >> protect and defend tonight said this about the attack. nothing. the united states the target of a major attack and trump says nothing. instead, this is how he spends his time today, tweeting about the election, repeating his tired and false claims about the election he lost and as for his administration's response to the attack. >> we are taking a hard look on this and obviously take any sort of cyber hacks very seriously. >> well, it's hard to take a hard look when the president of the united states has fired the head of the homeland security's cyber security and axed his secretary of defense. in fact, trump has gutted the defense department. trump doesn't have a permanent secretary of defense. he has purged defense advisory boards and put in cory lewandowski and scott owe grady. trump is declaring martial law. we'll talk about this serious national security attack, but this attack is not the only pressing attack he ignored. he was completely absent on a long delayed covid relief package. nothing is done. 12 million americans could see their unemployment benefits expire after christmas. 14 million americans could lose their home. the president is completely absent on the coronavirus itself making no mention of the 302,000 americans who have died from the pandemic. he hasn't been doing the job. well, except for -- except for things that he thinks are equivalent priorities to disputing the election, like today team trump rolled backwater saving regulations on shower heads. >> shower heads, you take a shower, the water doesn't come out. you want to wash your hands, the water doesn't come out. so what do you do? you just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? because my hair, i don't know about you, but it has to be perfect. perfect. >> good thing he took care of that problem today. kaitlyn collins is out front live outside the white house. caitlyn, amidst all of this, mitch mcconnell, he took 38 days. you heard kamala harris say, sure, it should have been earlier, we're glad it happen, let's move forward. mcconnell telling his caucus, stop with any further fights here, which is really saying i'm done with you president trump. any reaction from the white house yet? >> reporter: not a word from the president yet, which is telling in and of itself. the white house earlier couldn't say if the senate majority leader gave the president a heads up that he was going to make those remarks on the floor as he's done before on other occasions at times when he's contradicted the president, the rare occasions. erin, the white house realizes not that just mcconnell said this, it's the signal he's saying to other republicans, cut this out. they have been enabling and humoring the president on his efforts to try to overturn the election or at least push this public relations campaign and delay the inevitable which is joe biden becoming president. yes, there will always be that core group of house members that have supported the president through thick and thin. this is a message for senate republicans. that is what poses the danger to the president. when you start to have more and more senate republicans coming out on capitol hill saying it's time for the president to give these efforts up and he doesn't have that support, which that support we know he has been desperately seeking. he was the one who instructed one of his republican allies to go and get all of the house members to sign onto the amicus brief. so the president is counting and paying attention to who is supporting him in this endeavor. if that starts to change, the question is how does that affect the president himself. i think the other thing that could be even more important that mcconnell did today, which is what was behind closed doors. in that conversation bernie asked them not to join house members. congress is going to ratify joe biden's win. some of them are planning to object, including mo brooks from my home state of alabama. mcconnell is asking them to join them in that effort. so whether or not that actually goes forward is something that the white house is going to be watching. whether or not any of those senate republicans join them. >> all right. caitl caitlyn, thank you. i want to go to two republican former governors. john kasich and christine todd whitman. thanks to both. let me start with you, governor whitman. the president spending his time still focused on the election saying he won. not anything else, of course, of these incredibly momentous things happening. he's going to leave. what is his poigain at this poi governor? >> his mentality will not allow him to lose. if he doesn't win, it was stolen. he can never admit a fault to himself. what he is doing right now is just appalling, ignoring his role as president of the united states for, as you said quoting before, protect and defend. it's -- it's -- it's just mind boggling what's happening. he wants to keep that base ginned up. whether he has the discipline or desire to run in 2024, right now he doesn't know. he'll keep feeding them. he is undermining our constitution. he is undermining people's faith in what was an extraordinarily well done election given all the problems that we have and now we have enormous issues facing us and he's just burying his head in the sand. it's extraordinary. >> governor kasich, it is extraordinary. what's also extraordinary is that it took senator mcconnell 38 days to do the obvious. kamala harris is doing the gracious thing, we're glad it's done. should have been earlier, let's work together. that's the gracious thing. even hgiraldo, big trump supporter, says it's over. even with giraldo and mcconnell, trump's denial is making 30 republicans hold out. just listen to this, governor kasich. >> you say -- when you say he's president-elect -- yes or no. could you say he's president-elect? >> the questioner's manu raju. the nonresponder is gsenator scott. >> he's attending to important issues here. he's working on those shower heads. let's not dismiss that as not being important. how about this guy cramer. here's what he said today, senator cramer. they asked him if biden is president-elect? well, it seems to me that being elected by the electoral college is a threshold where a title like that is probably most appropriate and it's i suppose you could say it's official if there is such a thing as official president-elect or anything else elect. >> torture. >> i tried to go to an interpreter and figure out exactly what that meant. i talked to somebody that understood swahili, they didn't get it. i don't know if you get it. this whole thing, we have to start laughing. it's as serious as my friend kristie whitman says, but it's absu absurd. how many of these people are trying to avoid saying this guy won. 38 days it took mcconnell. it's just ridiculous. now the question is with his words that he said today, are we going to get something through? now i was thrilled to hear him say we're not going to leave until we get pandemic relief through. >> yup. >> there are so many people that are hungry, could lose their homes, they've lost their jobs. that was good news for me because that's about people and that's where we ought to be in this holiday season. >> governor whitman, when you talk about what's going to happen here under the biden administration, what they're going to be able to do, you served in the george w. bush administration. trump obviously is not right now doing his job, but president-elect biden is trying to name a cabinet very quickly. we've learned former governor jennifer granholm is going to be energy secretary. that's his pick. for transportation secretary he picked pete buttigieg. i wanted to take a moment together. here's a clip. >> i don't think i've ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son beau. and i know that may not mean much to most people, but to me it's the highest compliment i can give any man or woman, and that is that like beau, he has a backbone -- he has a backbone like a ramrod. i really mean this. think about it. >> so, governor, biden wanted to give buttigieg something big. what does that say, transportation secretary, about his priorities going forward here with buttigieg in transportation? >> well, i mean, you've got so many young and enthuse see as stick who wants a legacy, he's managed things and he knows how to organize. you have a guy who wants to get things done. you have an organization that have talked about it. there are a lot of shovel ready projects which is to bring the technology from japan to the united states. it's ready to go. it's shovel ready. there are a host of others out there that are shovel ready that this administration sat on. pete buttigieg is not going to let this go by. >> president trump is clipping to a job but the job itself, no. no public events, no questions from the president. nine days on the golf course, zero intelligence briefings that have happened since october 2nd. if he doesn't want to do the job, what does he want, do you think, governor kasich? >> i think christine's right. i think he wants to keep things stirred up. he wants to keep that base. let's talk about the base for a second. these are people who live, god bless them, they live in a silo and they get bed out of the silo because you only hear that that you already think and you already agree with. these folks are shopping around where they can hear more of what they want. he's feeding that. hue bhow big is that base? i don't think it's as big as people think. he wants to keep it going. he wants to re-elect the head of the rnc so he can have his fingers way in there. is he going to lose interest? i don't know, erin, i don't think you're going to be in front of mar-a-lago waiting on his every word. i don't think that's going to happen. >> no. >> we have to wait and see so new air and understand how we can built american and with other networks coming up. governor whitman, governor kasich, thank you very much. a white house security official, lower leg has been amputated. a family friend set up a go fund me account. why? a republican wants people to know what they've been up to since the election. >> fully embraced nullifying 5 million georgia votes. you might want to remember that come january 5th. and what governor kasich is talking about. a world fwild lies since trump lost the election. tell me why. >> it's not over. it's not, actually. you can look it up in the constitution. we look at what you've saved, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow that lasts, even when you're not working, so you can go from saving... to living. ♪ let's go swith sweet potato fries.... eating a falafel wrap (doorbell rings) thanks! splitsies? ♪ oooh...you meant the food, didn't you? so why wait to screen for colon cancer? because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'll do it. good plan. their laundry smells moremily amazing than ever.in flings, i'll do it. uh, honey? isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel. there's more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling. gain. seriously good scent. ...this one's for you. you inspired us to make your humira experience even better... with humira citrate-free. it has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, there's less liquid, and a thinner needle... with less pain immediately following injection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. and you can use your co-pay card to pay as little as $5 a month. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections,... ...including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,... ...as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems,... ...serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common... and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections,... or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. the same humira you trust with less pain immediately following injection. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. tonight president-elect joe biden still not saying when he will be vaccinated for coronavirus as dr. anthony fauci urges him to do it as soon as possible. >> dr. fauci recommends i get the vaccine sooner than later. i wanted to make sure we do apply the numbers and we do it -- when i do it you'll have notice and we'll do it publicly. >> cnn learning vice president mike pence is likely to get vaccinated by friday and will do it on camera. kayleigh mcenany said trump is open to the virus. he's expressed lots of skepticism of vaccines over the years. we have two guests out front. dr. reinner, you got the vaccine today. we have a picture. biden's team plans to make an announcement when he will receive the vaccine. fauci wants him fully protected by inauguration. that's 36 days away. he has time. but why do you think they haven't committed to a date yet? you said do it the night it's approved. >> i did say that. it will actually probably take him like four weeks, about a week after the boost which is given at three weeks. that takes us up to the inauguration. he doesn't want the appearance that he's jumping the line. what the numbers say is over 300,000 americans have been killed and the group at greatest risk are those who are older americans and he's 78 years old. to it's a grave threat to him. the bigger benefit to vaccinating the incoming administration is to show unanimity in the safety and efficacy of the vac seebs. unlike the spring when the outgoing president doubted the effectiveness of masks, this will go a long way to show the country that these vaccines are necessary to put this virus down. necessary and safe. i'm sure he'll do it sometime this week. >> dr. thomas, kayleigh mca na any wouldn't say whether he would get the vaccine. she points out he had the virus less than three months ago, there's a reason maybe he wouldn't get it. it's a question a lot of people will ask if they've had the virus. do they still need the vaccine? what's your answer to that, doctor? >> first off, erin, thank you very much for having me back. i do believe people who have had a previous natural covid infection should seriously consider getting vaccinated. i feel this way for a couple of reasons. the first is that in both the pfizer and the moderna trials, they demonstrated that the vaccine was safe and effective, even in people who had been previously infected. the second thing i would say is we really don't understand the immune response that occurs after a natural infection and we don't understand how long it may or may not protect them. the third thing i would say is fortunately this does not seem to be occurring often but we know people can get reinfected. for those reasons, i would propose that people who have been previously infected should strongly consider getting vaccinated. >> which is a point of national security. that's not your purview. trump and biden should be vaccinated as soon as possible as the commander in chief and the incould amming commander in chief. you mentioned moderna. the technology that you use and they use, the same. they're close to being authorized. i'm sure they have data that could prevent infection, not just prevent people from getting sick. this may seem like a tight distinction to make to a lot of people but it could be a significant distinction, we don't know. did you understand the pfizer vaccine could do that? >> this is an important concept. they can be infectious to other people and transmit to other people. moderna did offer some data. i would say i think the dataset is currently incomplete. the way the pfizer trial was done, we have the swabs and we can check the blood samples. my guess is they are doing this analysis. i do believe that it is highly plausible that a vaccine can induce a response that the amount of vaccine will be below the threshold to make people infectious. i'm very encouraged. >> the data is there, it needs to be analyzed by pfizer. tens of thousands of people in the study. if the data is there, we'll get the analysis. doctor, let me ask you today about the white house security director. she fell ill with the coronavirus for months. here's what she said when asked about it. >> our heart goes out to his family. they've asked for privacy and he is recovering from what i understand. we're very pleased to see that, but he and his family will be in our plans. >> has the president had a chance to speak with him? >> i'm not sure if the president has had a conversation with him nor would i confirm any private conversation they had. >> the family is facing staggering medical bills. the white house with those outbreaks. president trump has never mentioned anything about this, any kind of comment. she won't say whether she's spoken to the security chief. what do you make of that? >> it suggests a remarkable lack of empathy. if one of my team members was sick, i would be with them constantly on the phone, in person if i could. this is somebody who ran a large operation at the white house and has suffered really massively as a cons questi a consequence of this virus. imagine if he tweeted my team member is sick, here's his go fund me account, reach out to him. imagine what that would do for the family. it's not too late to do that. do that, mr. president. that would be a good thing. >> i'll leave you with a picture of dr. reiner. there you go. i know 21 days you'll get the second, but the minute you were allowed to get it, you got it, as all-americans should when their number comes up. thank you both so very much. i appreciate seeing you. now to the covid relief bill that millions of americans are talking about. mitch mcconnell says we're staying until it's done. the clock runs out december 26th. out front, senator maggie hasan. i appreciate your time. i was talking to a couple folks today who have been as part of this, right, these negotiations. the thought is this is real. this might really happen. there have been other optimistic times that this has fallen through, this is not that one. do you have that feeling? >> thanks for having me on, erin. we are hearing from our constituents, people in new hampshire, all of us are hearing from americans all across the country about the need for a relief package now, whether you're an individual trying to figure out how you're going to pay your rent or put food on the table. whether you're a small business owner, restaurant owner and you know you won't be able to have outdoor seating in the cold winter months. whether you are running a hospital, nursing home, whether you're an educator trying to figure out how to keep the schools safe from your students, whether you're a state or local government trying to figure out if firefighters can stay on the job. this group has worked hard. >> so there is a package, right? it's about $750 billion. >> right. >> you mentioned aid to things like the firefighters. my understanding is any funding for state and local governments as well as the liability protections were separate in a bill. >> that's right. >> does one come with the other? are you willing to get the first bill out the door that would help the restaurant owners and other americans regardless of what happens to state and local aid? >> well, that was the idea of putting forward these two packages from the bipartisan group. there is complete agreement among all of us on the $750 billion package that would provide immediate relief including that critical extension of unemployment benefits for people now. i am continuing to urge senate majority leader mcconnell to delink the aid to state and localities from the liability protections which are complex and we still have some questions about, but to the extent that the senate majority leader is going to insist that those two go together, we think it's important to get the first package out as soon as possible. >> senator mcconnell is going to keep session in session. he has until the 26th. your group is completely on the same page about the $750 billion package. will there be a deal on that tomorrow? >> i tonight know about the precise timing. i do know what we were able to do was give a pre-negotiated big package to our leadership and say, here are things that this bipartisan group from around the country can agree on. we gave them text. we hope there is a deal. >> i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. take care, be safe. next, president trump taking his feud with republican leaders to a new level. now suggesting some should be put in jail, jail for refusing to overturn the election. now all signs point to russia. the trump administration waffling when it comes to blaming russia for the recent cyber attack. why? john brennan will be out front. may your holidays glow bright and all your dreams take flight. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers at the mercedes-benz winter event. coto build a house, you need ary ststrong foundation. 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[applause] a big thank you. ♪ tonight president-elect biden in georgia. saying voters need to remember the efforts to overturn the election results. >> they fully embraced nullifying nearly 5 million georgia votes. you might want to remember that come january 5th. >> interesting, of course, since the leadership of the state, the republicans have stood up to that. obviously plenty of others have not. biden urging the nation to, quote, shock the nation. he's counting on a key number of voters. ku kyung lah is out front. >> we did it one time, we going to do it again. >> reporter: call it shout out the vote in the neighborhoods of columbus, georgia. >> your vote counted. >> reporter: la tasha brown of black voters matter and a caravan of buses weave through the cities. >> we going through the neighborhood. >> reporter: as early voting kicks off for the state's two senate seats in the january 5th runoffs. >> the job is not finished. got to do it again. we got to do it again. there is no path for the democratic party to flip these two seats without the acknowledgment, not just the acknowledgment, but the impact and work of black voters. >> reporter: la tasha brown and stacey abrams harnessed years of their grassroots work. >> we need those seats in georgia. stay in georgia, y'all. >> in the 2020 election, nearly 30% of voters were black with the majority of them voting for democrats helping flip georgia blue in november. two democratic senate challengers are counting on that turnout to beat the incumbent republicans in january. >> we've got to vote. >> reporter: at stake, control of the u.s. senate. why president-elect joe biden is campaigning in georgia. historically democrats have not shown up to the polls in runoffs. the earliest of georgia's early voters say it's different this time. before sunrise as rain fell, we met kenya debar rows to vote. >> it's snow flurrying now. >> reporter: but you haven't left. >> no. this election is too important. >> reporter: also in the pre-dawn line, republican david coombs. >> we never give up. we always vote this way. >> reporter: as the day goes on and the line grows, republicans say they believe president trump's baseless attacks on the election. >> our votes should mean something. they don't mean anything now. >> reporter: but they still voted. >> just voted, early voted and we're thrilled to vote. >> reporter: the republican voters we meet are listening to this call. >> i want you to vote early, right? vote early. this is republican senator david perdue's bus tour as he meets supporters they tell us -- >> do you think at this point you can say joe biden is the president, that he won? >> no. >> reporter: why not? >> because i still believe we won. >> reporter: even as reality closes in. >> i don't think it's going to impact the republicans. the republicans going to get out. >> reporter: republicans say georgia is red democrats running a race to prove the road ahead is blue. >> let's do it again. >> reporter: now among the biggest changes in the runoffs as compared to the general election, the number of voting locations. in cobb county, for example, where we were talking to the early voters, in the general election there were 11 early vote locations. in the runoffs, that's been reduced to five. after complaints led by the naacp, the county agreed to add two voting locations, erin, only for the third week of early vote. >> thank you very much. now let's go to dan johnson. erick erickson, conservative talk radio host and long time georgia resident. thank you both. mayor johnson, nearly 30% of georgia voters in the election were black. the majority voted for biden. that was a presidential election. do you believe from what you're seeing right now in these first days of early voting that you're going to see the same turnout for the senate runoff? >> thanks for the opportunity. to be very clear, this is 2020. it's a new game. it's a new dawn. the fact is, people recognize the significance of this moment that we're in right now. this is an opportunity not only to change the landscape in georgia, change the landscape for the united states. i think people are very, very cognizant of the role they're playing in this by just getting out to vote. >> eric, you heard some republicans talking to kyung lah. they said president trump won the election. they believe his false attacks on the election's integrity. they are voting in the senate runoffs anyway. they are voting. but when you look at trump's attacks and how they may be working, 16% of republican voters now say they're less likely to vote in the presidential election. only 6% of democrats said that according to a new fox news poll. are you worried that this could depress republican turnout? >> yeah. listen, it doesn't help when the president of the united states comes out and says the governor of georgia and the secretary of state need to be rounded up and arrested. it's a very mixed message. republicans went to the mailboxes, myself included, we all got mail pieces with the vice president on it saying go vote early. here's the website, not the president's face on the mail piece, the vice president. he comes back to georgia tomorrow to campaign but clearly there's a real mixed message for republicans. they say, i'm not slow thing and they're going to steal it again. >> pretty mixed message when you are saying the governor and secretary of state should be going to jail when you are republican president. biden went to atlanta today. he waited for the formal result came out and he went there in person. then he made the case, because he said to get his agenda done. here's what he said. >> i need two senators from this state, i want to get something done, not two senators who are just going to get in the way. send me these two men and we will control the senate and we will change the lives of people in georgia. >> so, you know, i know he mentioned georgia there, mayor. he's rationalizing it. some people say that could be difficult, when you are doing a local election it needs to be themfully worried. we recognize this is organizations. senators who are going to be around and visit georgia, understand the need of georgians, work for health care for georgians, make sure georgians have the money they need to survive every day, although there are national implications. we have tomorrow focus on the buildings responsive to us. >> eric, let's go back to the jail thing, okay? republicans, right, they want to be unified ahead of the runoff elections, right? it's impossible to be when president trump has a feud with georgia governor brian kemp. what is your reaction? >> there's rumor related to the picture that they're in the bay of china. trying to bring chinese businesses here and trying to bring businesses here if the democrats wen. there are a lot of people who are trump voters, not republican voters. those people may stay home. republicans will have libertarian voters who voted in the general and may come back for david perdue. they're very second amendment focused. if you go outside the atlanta heir yeah, it's all about guns and inside is a muddy message when your guys say they stole the election. >> mayor, i was talking to a state senator from georgia. he's talking about biden won and a lot of down ballots were split. do you think you could see that at the polls now? you know what, maybe i like joe biden but i don't want him to have all of this power in the senate. >> well, i think that's absolutely true. i think that is why all of the ground efforts that you highlighted earlier is so important. we have to stay on message. we have to continue to talk about records. we have to continue to set the narrative about why democratic candidates are better than republicans on the polls. it is about who is going to serve us best locally. then the national politics will take care of itself. >> thank you both very much as always. appreciate your time. next up former cia director is john brennan. how worried is he? russian hackers attacked. most consequential attack we've seen. inside the far right world. they've told the president and some of his supporters is not his. the election is not over. akes w. (doorbell rings) thank you. can we be besties, simone biles? i guess? yessss! should we dismount now? no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. my kids, they know i'm a scientist. but it's hard to explain to them what i do every day. ♪ right now, i'm working on purification technologies that help advance vaccine and therapy research for covid-19. one day, they'll realize i wasn't just trying to help them go out and play again. i was trying to make it safer for the whole world to get back outside too. i wasthe lack of controlsafer whenover my business kai, made me a little intense. but now quickbooks helps me get paid, manage cash flow, and run payroll. and now i'm back on top... with koala kai. save over 30 hours a month with intuit quickbooks. now roomba vacuums exactly where you need it. alexa, tell roomba to vacuum in front of the couch. and offers personalized cleaning suggestions for a clean unique to you and your home. roomba and the irobot home app. only from irobot. tonight u.s. officials investigating what an official tells "the new york times" is the most consequential hack in u.s. history into the top echelons of the united states. department of homeland security, department of agriculture, department of treasury, department of commerce, u.s. postal service may be impacted, fortune 500 companies and nuclear facilities. source telling cnn, quote, there will no doubt be more targets. out front, author of america's enemies at home and abroad. director brennan, it has been 48 hours since we learned about the attack. we still don't know, agency after agency, fortune 500 companies, telecom companies, nuclear facilities. and the most consequential in history says an official from the nsa to the "new york times." how big do you think this could be? >> well, the scope and duration of make it the most damaging in u.s. cyber history. it is a very specific attack and reports indicated that it was carried out by the russian spr. they are one of the most sophisticated cyber actor worldwide. how do you penetrate systems and extract the information? what they did was they put malware into the commercial software updates that are automatically sent out to all the clients in the government and outside. that malware sat within the systems and networks and extract information and not through known russian's ip addresses, again according to the press report, u.s. ip addresses that were not identified as being possible conveyer of this information that was going out of the schystem. the fact that so many industries affected and going on so long, the russians appeared to be able to pull this information out makes it very, very worrisome. >> when you think of nuclear military facilities, what's your -- i mean that sounds fearsome. >> yes, these are unclassified system of network. that does not mean they don't carry a lot of sensitive information at these departments and agencies. what i am sure the russians were doing were looking at information that may give them insights of vulnerabilities of infrastructure and take out information that's going to give them insights into what the united states is planning to do overseas and what our vulnerabilities are at home. this is what intelligence services tried to do in the digital environment, right in backbone of the internet. they were able to extract this information, getting the past the sensor that was put in place by the u.s. government in the last decade. we have sophisticated sensors. our sensors need to be updated in order to take into account of these sfis adequaophisticated a. >> i know officials are trying to determine who was behind the attack obviously, all leading to the russians as you have referenced. the secretary of state mike pompeo suggests russia was involved. he'll go that far but the president did not say anything about the attack or any outrage about it. what do you think booinehind hi silence? >> he's not filling the role of commander-in-chief and trying to keep this country safe and secure. this has been going on for months. what does he continue to tweet about? it is very unfortunate. i am hoping the professionals are continuing to focus on this because this is potentially very damaging. >> director brennan, i appreciate your time as always. thank you, sir. >> we'll show you where trump's supporters are headed to escape what's really happening. >> our president is in the fight of his life. troducing fidelity income planning. we look at what you've saved, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow that lasts, even when you're not working, so you can go from saving... to living. ♪ let's go so you can go from saving... to living. managing you're on it.es? staying fit and snacking light? yup, on it there too. you may think you're doing all you can to manage type 2 diabetes and heart disease... ...but could your medication do more to lower your heart risk? jardiance can reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who also have known heart disease. so, it could help save your life from a heart attack or stroke. and it lowers a1c. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration, ...genital yeast or urinary tract infections, and sudden kidney problems. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. a rare but life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction... ...and don't take it if you're on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. lower a1c and lower risk of a fatal heart attack? on it with jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance. we have to find somethingust else. good luck!ut it. what does that mean? we are doomed. [ laughter ] that's it... i figured it out! we're going to give togetherness. that sounds dumb. we're going to take all those family moments and package them. hmm. [ laughing ] that works. news maxes rating topping five businesses and even fox news at one point, all by pretending that president trump still may remain president trump in january. brian stelter is out front. >> our president is in the fight of his life. >> reporter: now that the electoral college has affirmed joe biden's victory. some right wing shows and sights don't know what to do. this banner on news max asking is it time to move on? while attorney alan dershowitz is saying yes. >> the election will be confirmed. >> reporter: some far right outlet is peddling false hopes. one america's news a channel promoted by president trump running segments like this. election manipulation is a long-term goal of the left and airi airing highlights from protrump rally in d.c. to boost the trump spirit. with fox news mostly accepting trump's time is up. >> joe biden is the next president of the united states. >> reporter: some trump's defenders are flipping over to oam and max. >> do you accept that trump lost georgia? >> no. >> where do you get your news information? >> news max because we don't trust fox news. news max refers to biden as the president elect. >> reporter: other protrumpers turning against anyone who gives biden legitimacy. >> i want to congratulate president-elect biden. >> reporter: fox latched out on mitch mcconnell on tuesday, thanks for nothing, mitch, calling for refresh thinking new blood. >> this is strictly about getting rid of donald trump. there is not an entity in the american deep state, washington established whatever, that does not want to get rid of donald trump including enough justices on the supreme court. >> reporter: there is supply for these lies because there is demand for these lies. demand is not going away even they said that it should. >> he's counter acted on news max, he thinks trump may be inaugurated again next month. these programs have far few fewer ratings than cnn. news max is small but it is g w growing inci size. there is only one word describing what's happening here and that's radicalization. >> it is disturbing. thank you very much brian, i appreciate your time. i appreciate all of you and anderson is now. good evening, joe biden is the president elect. the president may not want to hear it today. maybe he'll accept that two men he admires finally came out and said so, vladimir putin and and herrero says it is over. >> the electoral college has spoken. so today i want to congratulate president-elect biden. the president-elect is no stranger to the senate. he devoted
will be followed. and a raging pandemic, that now shows signs of becoming more contagious, more dangerous, and doing more harm to our fellow citizens. an outgoing lame duck president who refuses to concede an election he lost. and is intent on burning down our democracy on his way out the door. and this hour kicks off what will be continuing coverage of the georgia special elections for us into the night. my colleagues and friends, rachel maddow, brian williams, and joy reid will be along starting at 6:30 p.m. eastern. but right now, long lines at polling places on top of the record-shattering 3 million-plus early votes that have already been cast. democratic candidates ossoff and warnock must win for the party to take control of the u.s. senate. while republicans loeffler and perdue are clinging to donald trump, in what has become his desperate, all-out assault on democracy itself. in clearer language, it's a coup attempt. here's what is coming to a head this hour. mike pence is being pressured by trump to turn his ceremonial role tomorrow into an insurgent act. trump today falsely claiming that the vice president has the power to reject electors. the vice president has no such power to reject electors. the president's final attempt to cling to power is being fueled by what has been termed the sedition caucus, 12 u.s. senators and more than 100 house members. all that is left for mike pence is the stark choice between fealty to donald trump and loyalty to the constitution. we're also covering breaking news, 2020 also ushered in a long-overdue racial reckoning. one of the most searing instances of excessive force used against a black man was in the case of jacob blake. he was shot by a police officer in front of his children. that shooting has left him paralyzed. any moment, the kenosha, wisconsin, district attorney will announce whether any of the police officers involved in the shooting will face charges. we do not know what the decision will be. but we can report the city is already bracing for unrest. wisconsin's governor has mobilized 500 national guard troops. we're going to cover it as soon as it gets under way. we're going to start with election day in georgia. we're joined by yamiche alcindor joins us. also, cornell belcher, and greg bluestein. all eyes are on georgia. what is the latest reporting on the state of the final hours of that race, and how if in any way, donald trump's call this weekend changed it? >> my text messages are filled operatives worried about different tea leaves they're e seeing. we know there are some republican territories with turnout that is pretty solid. and in metro atlanta, it's hit or miss. light turnout, and some heavy turnout. right now, we know that republicans have a hole to fill. democrats built an early advantage with early voting, and republicans are reliant on a surge in tuesday turnout to fill that hole. >> greg, we have talked over the course of these runoffs, because all eyes instantly turn to georgia. the president-elect was in the state yesterday, and his closing message was back on the agenda. it's likely only passable if the two democratic candidates win their races tonight. how much is that in the water, that everything we're facing as a country, the pandemic, economic support, everything that people live in their daily lives is on the line with tonight's votes? >> that's a key part of the democratic message. ignore president trump, all the distractions, focus on a post-trump american political era. the democrats are saying in just a few weeks, if they win these senate runoffs, they can usher in sweeping voting rights measures, new funding to contain the coronavirus. they're tuning out president trump, and focusing on what they can achieve. >> i got a little chill when you said voting rights. kelly loeffler and david perdue have aligned themselves with donald trump's coup attempt, which is literally the disenfranchisement of voters in all the states that donald trump lost. i know nothing surprises you in covering this republican party at this hour, but were any of the operatives or advisers to loeffler or perdue troubled by donald trump's message last night, where he threatened his own vp at a rally? >> i got scattered, not just operative, but also some voters, especially more moderate voters. moderate republican voters who may have held their nose and voted for president trump, they like divided government. but you see this gradual embrace of escalating moves to inv invalidate the election results. they backed the texas lawsuit, and when loeffler last night said she indeed would back trump in congress tomorrow. >> you know, what is happening tomorrow is very much in the news on the white house beat, yamiche. reports that donald trump and mike pence lunched today. i've read every legal analysis of the options before mike pence tomorrow, and there aren't any. his role tomorrow is ceremonial. his job is to read the count, not to count it himself or replace it. that said, what is your latest reporting on what pence is expected to do tomorrow? >> it's tough to say what pence is expected to do. my reporting is based on what he should do, and what legal avenues for him there are. and my understanding is, this is a ceremonial role. he could have opted out, and it still would have gone forward. so the feeling is, he doesn't have any options before him. but he's facing intense pressure from president trump, but the votes were counted, the election is over, and has been for weeks now. so vice president pence, unless he wants to completely upend things in a way that is completely out of the norm and beyond any of the experts i've talked to, there are not really any options before him. we have seen with president trump, people thought it was about fund-raising, about the president trying to think of his future, when we saw him continuing to talk about the fact that he was going to win the election and fund-raise for the election defense fund. sunday night, we learned the president is intent on trying to shake down local elected officials to try to find votes and take back the election. it has started this kind of civil war you see going on in the republican party. one camp of people, some of them used to be trump allies, and then the others who are sticking by the president. but this really -- what we'll see tomorrow should go smoothly, even if it is in some ways raucous. the smooth part will be, joe biden will remain the person who will be president. >> cornell, i think yamiche found a way to describe the times. smooth but raucous. but i sense some angst. and some people around pence are feeling the heat of the direct pressure from donald trump. i'm not going to play it, but donald trump at his rally last night started by saying he won't like pence very much anymore if he doesn't betray the constitution and carry out trump's coup. we should call it what it is, a coup is an attack against the state, against the democracy. it also meets the definitions of sedition. but my question, with loeffler and perdue, people more extreme than don rumsfeld and dick cheney. they said what trump is doing is too extreme. >> yeah, as a good communications person, i'm going to talk about something else entirely. >> you're welcome to do so. >> i was on the phone earlier with mayor bottoms in atlanta, and i have to, before i get to your question, i have to give kudos to the operation that i think you're seeing from the organizations, both the party and campaign organizations, and also third-party ones like naacp, and other organizations on the ground. look, we have more people voting, you know, who didn't vote. over 40,000 people who didn't vote in the general election have already voted in this election, that we think are african-americans. which is extraordinary. they're blowing through every turnout prediction in georgia for a runoff. as one who has worked in runoff elections in georgia, i've never seen anything quite like this. they're on the ground, touching voters, and pulling voters out, and i think they have a robust program there. and looks like democrats are talking to the mayor, looks like democrats are going into election day with a bigger advantage today than biden had already on election day in the general election, which is just tremendous. and what republicans have to do right now is, they have to have a huge election day. what is really critical, what you should be watching for is, you know, all the republicans who did not turn out and vote early, will they get the same sort of surge and energy now that donald trump is not on the ballot, and particularly that donald trump has given mixed messages about the election there. will they get that same sort of surge and that huge election day on the ground in georgia, that they certainly need to overcome what looks like a democrat advantage. to the questions of perdue and loeffler, sort of objecting to the vote, what i find is interesting, in their state, what they're really doing is, they're trying to disenfranchise black and brown voters, but more importantly, they're disenfranchising suburban voters. the biggest difference between hillary clinton and biden, it's in the suburbs. >> i have a million more questions for you, and i'm glad you brought it back to what has happened on the ground. joe biden mentions stacey abrams every time he campaigns there. and his line about her is, there's obviously a personal relationship there and a lot of affection. he said, if i can clone stacey abrams and we could have 12 of them, we could change the world. just try to talk about what you see in terms of the difference, if you can go through different parts of the state, between joe biden's election day, when he prevailed, i think we all now know after listening to the trump tape, about 11,400 -- what did trump keep saying? 11,440 votes. how do you see it shaping up as improving upon biden's election day in november, and where? >> that becomes the key question. it's all about these what we call sporadic voters, voters who don't consistently vote in elections turning out and getting a larger share of them, it's a 30/30 thing, they need 30% african-american, and 30% of the white vote to be successful in georgia. and kudos to stacey abrams and the organizations on the ground, registrations increased, from 2016 to 2020, there was a huge increase in registration. when you look at where the vote was different, the portion of the electorate, 4 or 5 points larger in 2020 than in 2016. and that makes all the difference in the world. a lot of what these on the ground organizations have been doing, expanding the electorate, bringing new registrants in, and being more competitive in the suburbs. look, biden did substantially better in the suburbs than hillary clinton did. a lot of that is sort of, is that a rejection of donald trump? does perdue and loeffler's embrace of donald trump, does that continue to turn off certain segments of those suburban voters who once upon a time were reliable republican voters? >> greg, you've been covering this since the morning after the presidential election was called and all eyes turned to georgia. this dynamic, the early vote, young voters, infrequent voters. what is your sense of how all the groups, did the democrats bank on that vote, in the early vote, to be cautiously optimistic? what is your sense of the numbers today? >> i talked to democrats who are more than cautiously optimistic, they're overall optimistic. others are despondent. that's why it's so hard to read the tea leaves right now. but one number that folks keep coming back to, more than 100,000. that's the number of voters who did not cast ballots in november, but are now casting ballots in the runoffs. with the margins so close, democrats feel like they've built an advantage among new voters as well, this untapped pool. >> news has just broken that kenosha county, wisconsin's, district attorney has announced that no charges will be filed against police officers in the shooting of jacob blake. let's listen in to that news conference. >> they'll both be available at 5:00 p.m. today. in addition, there has been a report drafted with all the findings, that also will be available at that time. so now i intend to talk about what steps were taken specifically by the d.a.'s office to prepare for the investigation, and what our conclusions are about the law and the evidence in this case. as soon as i saw the video, and shared the same emotional reactions that i think so many people in the public did, my first viewing of the circumstances of the video that certainly went viral immediately, i knew at that time that we needed to do the most independent charging and processing decision that could be done. at the first moment i learned that, i called on the u.s. attorney's office to do a parallel civil rights investigation that would be a separate investigation and conclusion and findings from our own. the u.s. attorney's office has a civil rights specialist who prosecutes and makes charging decisions about officers and any misconduct. so they have specialists who do that. they work out of their washington, d.c., office. they did agree to do an investigation. i know that is going on. and i invite you to contact that office to find out what their status is. kenosha deserves a second legal opinion other than my own. i'm confident about the things i'm talking about today. but i believe that the healing process begins or is improved by an opportunity for members of the public to see other prosecuting agencies make decisions. and the other thing i did, and i think this is unprecedented in the state of wisconsin, i don't think this has been ever done before. i asked the wisconsin attorney general to select for this particular case a use of force expert who i had nothing to do with hiring. i asked them to find someone, so there would be a truly and completely independent expert on issues of police training, and issues of whether the use of force in this case was reasonable. i asked them to select the person without me having any input. what the attorney general did was he asked noble ray, who is with me today, who accepted. and i knew noble ray's name, i knew him as a national and state spokesperson for police reform. and talking about bias in policing, and a person hoping to -- who had spent after a long career at the madison police department, his second career was trying to be a voice on those issues on a national level. when i first had my contact with noble ray, had never spoken to him in my life, had never met him in person until after this selection was made, my first conversation with him was about how i wanted in no way to influence the decision he came to about the matters that mattered in this case. i told him, no matter what you conclude, we're going to publish that, that will be an independently formed opinion. i won't have any influence, and you will be allowed to put anything you want in there. and i will invite you to offer any opinions -- >> we just want to tell you what you're listening to. that's the kenosha, wisconsin, district attorney. he said it will take one hour to explain the decision. but the decision is that no charges will be brought against the police officer or any of the police officers involved in the shooting of jacob blake. he was an unarmed black man who was shot, and the shooting resulted in becoming paralyzed, it happened as he was at the front door of his vehicle with his children in the backseat. i want to bring in gabe gutierrez, live in kenosha, wisconsin, for us. gabe? >> reporter: i want to paint the picture of where we are right now. right behind me, we see a police cruiser with several members of the wisconsin national guard. as you mentioned earlier, the governor has mobilized several hundred members, 500 drootroopsd i want to get to what you just heard from the local district attorney. yes, as you mentioned, no charges in this case. a case that has captured nationwide attention. there was unrest following the death of george floyd and the shooting of jacob blake. he was shot seven times. what you just heard from the district attorney is that applying the law to this case, he believes no charges should be filed in this case. but there is still an investigation ongoing at the federal level as well. but this is what jacob blake's family expected, last night, there was a protest here in kenosha, where his father said this is perhaps what he expected. late last night, the city council voted to approve an emergency declaration, expected to extend for eight days now. but this is a city that really was brought to a standstill when this case happened back in august. over the last several months, many of the businesses here in kenosha, wisconsin, have remained boarded up. and as you can see behind me, there is great concern of whether anger might boil over once again in this community. but again, the breaking news, the district attorney here announcing his long-awaited decision that no charges will be brought against any of the officers here in this case. the one who fired the shots, his attorney had previously said he believed that jacob blake had a weapon on him. and that is why he fired those shots. but again, the district attorney now saying there's not enough evidence to convict any of those officers. >> gabe gutierrez, thank you. please jump back on if anything develops. joining our conversation, paul butler. a few questions come to my mind. is there a standard being set that a police officer can have a suspect's shirt in his hand, and fire eight shots, and no legal lines have been crossed? >> indeed there is a standard being set. a standard of miscarriage of justice once again. another example of african-americans not receiving equal protection of law. michael brown, breonna taylor, and now jacob blake. we have a man shot seven times in the back while his three children are watching. mr. blake was unarmed at the time he was shot. so the district attorney's options range from attempted murder to reckless endangerment to assault. here we have once again, no legal consequences. when you ask whether this sets a standard, criminal prosecutions are expressive, they're designed to deter future misconduct and to demonstrate respect for the humanity and dignity of victims. when prosecutors fail to bring charges, that's expressive as well. it means in the eyes of the government, what happened to mr. blake is not a crime. that someone can be shot in the back seven times in front of their children while unarmed and the person who did the shooting suffers no criminal consequences. >> it seems that when you see the police officer holding jacob blake's t-shirt, he has control of jacob blake's body when he shoots him seven times. can you explain what that could usher in, that someone could literally be holding someone while they shoot them in front of their children? >> so, no cases against police officers are easy. and most do not result in convictions for murder or attempted murder. what was different about this case is that mr. jacob was shot in the back. it's harder for the officer to make the case that he reasonably feared for his life, which is the legal standard. we know that none of the other officers on the scene discharged their weapons. that supports an inference that this officer may have been trigger-happy. and then we have that harrowing videotape. when you watch that tape, you see a black man being hunted down by a police officer with a gun and you don't see that man posing any threat. you could believe your own eyes. >> paul butler, gabe only made an oblique reference to it, but obviously, jacob blake's shooting ushered in extremist violence in the streets. kyle rittenhouse, celebrated by some right-wing hosts, took to the streets as a vigilante, and acquired a weapon, and strolled past police after fatally shooting other people in a melee in a protest. what do we know about what impressions people of kenosha may have from all of these events? >> the accurate impression from the two events is that in kenosha, wisconsin, as in too many places around this country, there are two different sets of law. one for people of color and especially african-americans, and another for police officers. and too frequently, police officers are held above the law. they don't have to follow the same rules as everybody else. if there's any encouraging news, it's that president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris as candidates met with mr. blake's family and they expressed their outrage. and upon assuming the power of the presidency, they have the opportunity to make a difference. so far, we haven't seen any changes by this national reckoning. american cops kill about 1,000 people every year, they killed about 1,000 people in 2020. the biden administration can get back in the business of civil rights. it can bring pattern and practice investigations against local police officers. the obama administration brought 25 different investigations against local police departments. the trump administration brought one. >> wow. that is just staggering. it's a conversation that we will continue. paul butler, thank you. i want to bring in my colleague, reverend al sharpton. and i know you've been in touch with the blake family since this happened. have you talked to them today? >> i literally am landing at columbus, ohio, and the family attorney, ben crump, is with me. i'm literally in the airport, landing back. he's on his way to kenosha, i'm going probably tomorrow. this is an outrage, even though it's expected. the local district attorney was not going to do anything, nicole. i think this puts further energy to the civil rights leaders who met with president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris to have an attorney general who is committed to having proper policing. i said i prefer a black attorney general, but at least have one with a background in civil rights and in police reform. that puts further pressure, since they have not announced an attorney general, that they appoint someone who is sensitive to this. i just preached a funeral two hours ago in columbus, ohio, of a man shot, unarmed, several times. the policeman had 90 complaints against him. and in kenosha, a man shot on tape, seven times, in the back. and the local prosecutor sees no misuse of force. it is on this incoming administration to redeem proper policing in this country. i think they'll live up to it, and i think they will show us what policing should be about. when you compare the policing task force that we had under obama that brought several investigations, with the trump administration, it didn't do any. i think you see why many of us are saying change was needed. what happened to jacob blake jr., who did live, but was clearly wounded. seven shots in the back, compare those that have been killed like andre hill, it's time for us to deal with the issue of policing in this country in a fair and just way. they're bracing for whether there will be violence tonight. and we don't condone any violence. but what about the violence that happened to jacob blake jr.? to be shot in the back is violence. you need to do something about the police violence that has already occurred unjustifiably. >> you were the first person we wanted to talk to, and a lot of people around the country have sought you out. all summer we've covered your eulogies at george floyd's funeral and others. what do you want to say to people who are just feeling re-traumatized and feeling all the pain and anger and don't have the patience for all the policy work you just articulated? >> i want to say to them that the outrage and anger all of us feel. but the question is, if we just vent our anger, and not really do something that will permanently stop this, we're going to go from one funeral to the next and not get justice. so to just vent and show our anger will play into the hands of those that don't want to see fundamental change. we must be strategic enough to channel our anger into real change. as i said, during christmas, we saw during the holiday season, we saw more police shootings. i just left a funeral where a family is burying another victim. it only helps to justify their position if we become violent, oh, we were afraid. what they care about is to put people in power who will hold them accountable and will change the laws to where police are accountable as anyone else. we're not anti-police, we're anti-bad policing and violent policing. we need to have the blakes and and the floyds of this world get justice. and we stop going from one episode of injustice to another. this district attorney is representative of many local authorities around this country. that's why we need federal laws like the george floyd policing act, and federal oversight of policing, which started under consent decrees in the last administration, and was eliminated under the trump administration. we need biden and harris to bring this country back on to the course of mutual respect for life, for police and for citizens, and not where you have a society where people can be shot in the back by police. that didn't even happen in the wild, wild west, they can be shot in the back, and experts say it's justified. it wouldn't have been justified, as i said, in the wild, wild west. why is it justified in kenosha? >> i can't wait until the day when we're not tracking you down in the airport when you just delivered a eulogy, about another tragic event. >> thank you. we're going to sneak in a break. new reporting on donald trump's pressure campaign against his own vice president to aid and abet his coup attempt in congress. all that and more as "deadline: white house"'s special election coverage continues. don't go anywhere. al election coverage continues don't go 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(giggling) i hope mike pence comes through for us. i have to tell you. i hope that our great vice president, our great vice president comes through for us. he's a great guy. of course, if he doesn't come through, i won't like him quite as much. >> mike pence has been one of trump's most loyal aides. standing with the president through every crisis and juncture in the trump presidency and candidacy. even backing trump's baseless claims of voter fraud. with pence set to reside over the vote in congress to certify the election results, trump is hoping the vice president will choose him and do something crazy over the will of the people. and what is written and prescribed by the u.s. constitution. he's hoping that pence will find a way to throw out biden's win. something he has zero authority to do. the new york times has come to believe mr. pence's role will be akin to that of a chief justice and arbiter. in reality, it will be more like the person who opens an envelope in the academy awards, nothing to do with determining the winner. jake, let me start with you. i made the point that the story that trump aides and allies have told all three of us, sometimes in calls made through signal, he's too stupid, too hapless, to have worked with russia or obstructed the mueller investigation. now, with this thing with pence, is that the cover story, or is trump so maniacal that he wants pence to fabricate a role for himself? >> a few things here. i'm trying to make sense of this now. typically on capitol hill, we have a lot of precedent that deals with all sorts of situations, because our country has been around for a couple hundred years and a lot of things have happened in the halls of congress. but there's never been an instance where the vice president had the possibility of going rogue, right? where he is presiding over a joint session of congress, and he might be dishonest about what the results are. if you ask nonpartisan people who have been guiding congress for decades through all sorts of bizarre scenarios, if you ask, what happens if the vice president does something, the answer is, we don't know. it's never happened. listen, here's the reality. mike pence is going to be getting advice from the house parliamentarian, a lawyer and expert on the roles of the house and the president. if he ignores that and does something else, the house of representatives is a maj majoritarian body. i like to think of the minimum and the maximum story we're going to get. the maximum, if he goes completely off the rails, there's a majority in the house and the senate that is going to prevent that from happening. at worst case scenario. we're journeying into uncharted territory. we don't know what pence is going to try to do, or what the president is trying to make him do. but we do hope, even if it's more than what the new york times is describing, the traditional definition as prescribed by the constitution, the role for the vice president. but could he deviate? you would hope the institution isn't presented with that. but we have to think of all sorts of scenarios as we plan for tomorrow. >> i'm going to associate myself with your alarm, jake sherman. and i want to ask you about the political calculation. it's abundantly clear to me, no one is doing anything out of loyalty to the country. the republicans decided that democracy was so vital in places like iraq that they voted to send our country in. but it's not important here? i want to show you brett baier pushing back on mr. hawley last night, and what do you make of hawley's position? >> are you trying to say that as of january 20th, that president trump will be president? >> well, that depends on what happens on wednesday. >> no, it doesn't. the states by the constitution say they certify the election. they did certify it. by the constitution, congress doesn't have the right to overturn the certification. >> this is my only opportunity during this process to raise an objection and to be heard. >> don't you have a responsibility to tell them it's not going to be president trump as of january 21st as well? >> so, jake, let me tell you, do not tell me he's smart. okay? other people have made that problem on this program, i've thrown up in my mouth when people tell me where he was educated. he may be smart, but he's not a democratic politician. if he will not look in a camera and say joe biden will be the president on the 20th, he's un-american. is that where that 12-member sedition caucus wants to be, or do they want to be where tom cotton and chris christie have carve out a space? >> it's a lot of republicans in both the house and senate. in our afternoon edition today, we had a letter from house republicans saying it didn't go out way, but this is the reality of the situation, joe biden is president. hawley, for some reason, sees this as an opportunity to debate or litigate the merits of these voting apparatuses, and i don't quite understand. he doesn't have standing as a prosecutor, he doesn't have investigative powers. so he's going to debate the merits of whether there was fraud, and as a lawyer, he understands the courts have already debated the merits, and they've come to a conclusion that there was not systemic fraud, joe biden won the election, donald trump lost the election. and the halls of congress generally speaking is not the place to have this debate. it's not the forum. listen, the political calculus is this. all of these people, many of the people, cruz, hawley, are fighting for a position in a republican party that they think they will lead come 2024. it's no more complicated than that. and ted cruz is going to object to arizona tomorrow, the first state he could object to. so, listen, this is just a rush to grab the trump mantle. and tom cotton is saying, there is no validity here in the constitution. the only thing these people can do is make reporters and colleagues angry tomorrow with a 24-hour session that will end in a predictable manner. joe biden will be president on january 20th. >> i really appreciate your clarity, jake. yamiche, this makes vice president pence's walking of the plank, which is what he will have to do tomorrow, i know all of the reporting at the hour suggests in the end he will abide by the constitution. but i've also been warned the situation remains fluid. and i wonder if you can just take us inside, you know, we've seen reporting from people like both of you and even fictional depictions of what a pressure campaign, one-on-one, over a meal is like. when trump went to comey, there was a lunch between trump and pence today. pence has some skilled political hands around him. but there's no way to skin this cat, if you will. there's no way to please trump and be loyal to american democracy. >> vice president pence finds himself in a situation that a lot of people who are loyal to president trump often find themselves at the end of their relationship with trump. he gives you an ultimatum that is even more than can be done under the constitution. jeff sessions, when he recused himself, when attorney general bill barr, when he said my department looked at the election, there was no fraud. james comey with the dinner asking about loyalty and him having to make sure he wrote down the notes very quickly to make sure he could understand and document that the president was asking him to do something that he found fundamentally unethical. and the phone call, you see president trump desperate, you see president trump in the delusional state where he's yelling at brad raffensperger. at one point, the part of that phone call that made me stand up was when he says, come on, fellas. you're republicans. i just need 11,000 votes. you can just imagine that president trump is having that same conversation with vice president pence, saying, look, you're on this ticket, man. why aren't you on my side? we can all imagine that, because we've all seen the president do this at rallies, on twitter. it's up to vice president pence what he decides to do. he's obviously one of the people i'm sure is looking at 2024, and wanting to possibly be president himself. this is a hard decision on his part. but it's also, it shouldn't be that hard of a decision. we live in america, where we export our democracy. we go to other countries and teach them how to have democracies. and tomorrow should be a lesson on how to have smooth democracies, but we're not sure we're going to get that. >> jake and yamiche, thank you so much for spending time with us. up next, we'll go back to georgia, where voting is still under way. some republicans home. don't go anywhere. anywhere. with the new freestyle libre 2 system, a continuous glucose monitor, you can check your glucose with a painless, one-second scan. and now with optional alarms, you can choose to be notified if you go too high or too low. and for those who qualify, the freestyle libre 2 system is now covered by medicare. ask 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the voters and what is the anecdotal evidence of turnout? >> reporter: well, nicolle, let me set up where we are. we're in cherokee count which is a republican strong hold back in november, so two months ago it was a place where president trump and david perdue earned about 69% of the vote. just under 70% of that vote. so republicans are excited by what you see behind me which is long lines that have been consistently long throughout the day. this line and the nice lady a couple of minutes ago timed herself and walked over and said it took about 38 minutes to make it from the top of that hill through the line orb through the polling center and then back outside. republicans are probably excited about this as excited as democrats were by the early voting numbers that we saw. you mentioned before those doors even opened, more than 3 million people in the state already cast their ballot and that is what you're hearing from both sides. it is about turnout and driving the bases, for democrats more in the atlanta and fulton county, dekalb county and about 69 percent of the vote that president trump earned in november. that equated to about 99,000 votes. >> what is the final day of campaigning like? i know senator perdue had contact with someone with covid and trump was in the state last night. president-elect biden was there as well. what is -- does it feel like the last day of a campaign? >> reporter: oh, it did yesterday. withouta doubt. and you could tell but the surrogates that w surrogates that came into the state of georgia, talking about vice president pence and joe biden and president trump with the rally last night and senator pu purdue has been sidelined because of someone testing positive for the coronavirus and you get the sense when you talk to the voters, the idea that that race is determining the control of the senate. voters understand the implications of this race. while i've talked to a lot of republican voters here it is important to note many of theme are repeating doubt that you hear from trump in terms of the results of november election. but their presence shows for these voters it hasn't impacted the decision to come out and vote. >> it will all become clear at some point. shaq brewster, thank you so much. the next hour of our special coverage of the georgia special election runoff starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we're just getting started. getd robinhood believes now is the time to do money. without the commission fees so you can start investing today, wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. so give your businesss more than resolutions... give it solutions, from comcast business. work more efficiently with fast internet and advanced wifi. make your business safer with powerful cybersecurity solutions. and stay productive with 24/7 support. make this year's resolution better solutions. bounce forward with comcast business. get started with a powerful internet and voice solution for just $64.90 a month. plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a $500 prepaid card when you upgrade. switch today. hi, again, everyone. it is 5:00 in the east. our first glimpse into the results of georgia senate run yoif races minutes away. steve kornacki will join us to break down the exit poll data. polling locations close in two hours. although georgia's seblcretary state has said it is likely the races will not be called until tomorrow morning. a record number of more than 3 million early votes have already been cast. that is through mail-in ballots and early in-person voting all underscoring the high stakes of the races tonight. the outcome of both crucial in determining what the next two years in washington, d.c. will look like. they will establish who holds control of the senate and likely shape joe biden's ability and pace that he could enact his agenda. these special races marked by the unique circumstances our country is currently in. senator david perdue, the republican running against jon ossoff has had to quarantine the past few days because he and his wife were in close contact with someone who tested positive for covid-19. and last night the race between reverend raphael warnock and kelly loeffler heated up when loeffler announced she will object to the certification of joe biden's victory tomorrow. casting a massive shadow over the runoff elections has been donald trump and all of his attempts to subvert democracy. specifically his call this weekend in which he pressured georgia's republican secretary of state to quote, find ballots that would then flip the state in his favor. big question for today is whether trump's attacks on the election and the election system and his baseless claims of voter fraud will keep any of his republican supporters away from the polls. according to "the new york times," both races could be nail biters. there are some indications that democrats have a bigger share of the early voting electorate raising hopes for a party that has been the underdog in runoff races. and t and the control the senate in the balance as we get our first look into the georgia runoffs is where we start this hour. priscilla thompson is live at a polling station in smyrna, georgia. also joining us, alex wagner from the circus and writer to the atlantic and chairman of the serve america movement former republican congressman david jolly and strategist aisha mills is back. steve kornacki will have results when they are ready but i love to hear what you're hearing and seeing on the ground. >> reporter: in terms of what we're seeing, it is not the long lines in the final week of early voting when the line was wrapped around the neighborhood with folks anxious to get in here and cast ballots. we're seeing a steady stream of voters but most folks were surprised to show up and find there was no line. and i think what is interesting about the conversation that i've had with voters is that for many of them it was not necessarily a easy decision here on who they would vote for. i spoke to a number of people who said they liked one candidate but not the other and were almost thinking of splitting the ticket but decided they needed to vote a straight ticket to ensure that whatever party was in office, whichever party they chose, would be able to get something done. and so that is some of what i've heard from voters today. and in terms of issues, you have folks talking about wanting business minded policies and another voter said it is about women's rights and things like that. so two very important races. and as i mentioned, the wait times have not been very high. the secretary of state saying they're averaging one minute wait at polling locations across the state. and you talked about the president's claims of fraud. i did ask voters about that. and no voters that i spoke to said that it impacts their choice about whether or not they would turn out. and also security, which is another concern as the georgia bureau of investigations has said that they're keeping a close eye on the security of the polling sites and that was another thing, safety is not something that voters said was an issue but recognizing how high stakes the races are and making sure that they made voices heard even if it was on the last day to do so. >> alex wagner, you have new sound with raphael warnock. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> you're a son of georgia. president of the united states is saying that the election was a scam and he's dlibteliberatel trying to disenfranchise black voters and people say trump and the republican party has done a lot of bad stuff but this feels like something else. >> i think it should motivate all of us to show up. >> will it? >> we need to show up. that is what everybody could do right now. i'm outraged by what we heard but the response is to show up when we show up we make sure that our voices are not diminished. the politicians with playing games. and it is more of the same. and only way to correct that is for people to show up. and reclaim their democracy. >> i'm struck watching your interview there, watching jon ossoff on the stump, as recently as yesterday, and over the weekend, watching joe biden's speech, we took that live in our hour, there is so much message discipline and they're focused on the economy, focused on the pandemic and policy which after four years of trump sounds like a new and a weird thing. but there is no one sort of taking the bait on the trump story. and wondered to you what does that say about where they're reading the georgia vote? >> i would say we're on the same page, nicolle. i will say, i took three passes at asking reverend warnock about the trump tape and he said it is more of the same, go out and vote. they understand this election is won by having the base turnout and they do not think that while trump is on the horizon is an evil, they do not think he is the driver for georgians going to the poll. they have been so completely focused on their message and their messages don't nationalize this race, let's talk about issues that matter and those are racial justice, covid, health care and education. i talked to jon ossoff this morning, they don't want to talk about raffensperger or pence or $2,000 stimulus checks. they have a pair of democrats with message discipline unlike anything i've seen given the stakes an the chaos sown in washington, d.c. >> and that used to be a thing. ip worked in a white house that we do know how to do the message discipline thing, for better or for worse. what is the feeling about what it would mean -- i don't have any results or crystal ball, steve kornacki is going to be along, but it is just tea leaf reading but what is your response about the the historic nature of these two campaigns, these two candidates and should they pull it off tonight and win? >> well, i think they're not coming at this without the hard work of groups like the new georgia project and black voters matters. there has been a years long effort to get people of color to vote in elections and this is kind of the harvest of those efforts. and part of building that grassroots movement toward voter mobilization and registration has been figuring out what do voter care about, what people of color that don't vote in runoff elections, what will get them to care and how to get to where they are and not where we are but these are lessons that the jon ossoff and raphael warnock campaigns have learned well. they know it is not the scandal of the national media but making voters feel like they care about their issues and they will meet them there. i will say as much as we feel like we're -- we are in a moment of crisis, right. >> yeah. >> the message has been one of hope. you have the power and you could change things and the fact that biden turned the state blue in november has given people a taste of success and that is why i think this runoff is maybe different than any other runoff or the last 30 years of runoffs in georgia history. people feel like they are on the cusp of real change and i think the message you could change our democracy, you could make the world you want to see is resonating with people in a way that it hasn't before. jon ossoff and raphael warnock have been disciplined about projecting a sense of optimism and given people a sense that their hand on the lever matter this is january 5th. >> i want to unpack that and i want to ask you, these stories all seem connected. we have stacey abrams and you're right this is year's long campaigns and efforts as well as the death of john lewis. but i want to ask you to hang on because our first look at exiting polling in georgia. we're going to turn to steve kornacki live at the big board. i saw you tweet that you are not leaving the studio until we have results. we'll hold you to that. i'll bring you juice and water and fresh shirts if you need that. >> i learned to regret that back in november. let's see if this one goes quicker. we have the first wave of the exit polling. before i show the numbers, these are not the final exit poll numbers. there are more that will come in over the next few hours so our first glimpse at what this electorate looks like in georgia for the runoff. so let's take you through a couple of different things. the composition in the first wave of the polling, the composition by race, you see a lot of big divide there in georgia when it comes to voting by race. you could see here in the first wave here, 62% of the electorate is white. in november, in the presidential raise in georgia in the final exit poll it was 61% white. so 61% and 62%. black voters 29% in the exit poll in the biden/trump presidential race back in november in georgia, 29% of the electorate was black. so same for black voters, white voters in the first wave of exit polling making up 1% more. again the numbers could move around a little bit. we have to wait and see as we get subsequent waves. that is one thing from the exit poll. we could show you by age. take a look at the breakdown by age. so you could see 65 plus and this 24% and the biggest group 38% and the youngest group of voters and how many will turn out to vote, right here you're seeing 13%. 13% are under 30 years old. in the november election, that number was higher. that number was 20% in the november election. we've seen this number in particular when we do exit polling, we talk about the subsequent raise and could that raise to 20% and that is a potentially significant drop. that is going to keep an eye on it. does it tick up or get close to the 20% or fall and short of that. so keep an eye on that one. one another to show, the question was asked, just given the climate of the runoff and everything the president is saying and doing here, do you have confidence that your vote is going to be counted accurately? 42% of voters today say they are very -- very confident and that is about three quarters of the electorate expressing some degree of confidence about the vote count and then about a quarter of the electorate saying they are not that confident or not at all confident. so about a three quarters to one quarter split on that question. that tells you that it is not exactly a partisan divide on that question. >> i have 37 follow-up questions but i'll keep it to two. one of the things i learned from november watching you do math in your head was the outstanding vote in november representing the early vote. what is the case in georgia? how much of what we know when the early vote will be counted? >> georgia is different than the other states folks might remember from november. in that tonight this is going to vary by county. so what we saw back in november and what we expect tonight is there are some counties that shortly after the polls close at 7:00, they'll release all of or most of the mail-in vote for that county. there are other counties that decide to wait until the end of the night. and at midnight or 1:00 in the morning, something like that, will release the mail vote there. some counties will start out with the votes cast same day. the sequence, we've been calling around and talking to different county officials trying to get a sense of this and the answer is it is all over the map here. so we've got some sense of which counties are going to do it which way, as i stand here at 7:00, 8:00 and the votes will coming in, i'll give you guidance but that is an important point because for folks watching coverage tonight, it is not just enough when you're seeing partial returns from the counties come in tonight, it you see 50% of the vote in from a county it is important to see how the two candidates are doing but the most important question to answer when you see partial returns from any county is what vote is this? am i looking at the mail or same day vote or a combination. that could be challenge in some of the counties. it is the nature in georgia. it would be very opaque but we'll do our best to take you through it with the question in mind. what is the vote we're looking at now and what is the type of vote still to come here because that is going to be the variables that decide the election. >> and i think of that when i look at you kind of making some of these carve offs and comparing them to november it is difficult to have meaningful comparisons to november until we have a full representation of the vote, is that good sort of caution at this early hour? >> absolutely. here is what we want to do as the votes start coming in. keep an eye out for, when we start getting completed counties, and last night trump was in north georgia, the heart of republican country, when we get a couple of completed counties and we want to see how many were cast in whitfield county and what percentage does that account for? at 80% of the november turnout or 70%. you want to get a sense of that and compare it once we get a handful of democratic counties in. is one higher than the other. are there more democratic turnout in the democratic counties than the republican. that is the kind of thing we have to get some completed counties up on the board to see but that is a major question we're tracking as soon as the polls close. >> i know you have so much ahead of you. could i ask you to stick around. i want to just come back to you alex wagner on your point about really decades, generations of work by some of the groups to lead to tonight. and i wonder if there is anything that you saw in steve's early report that gives you me indication of how that has gone? >> well, look, i talked to the campaigns about how they're looking at these early numbers and they have their own math. their going to be looking intently at trump areas of the state to see what those numbers are. because i think internally they have a number that they think is democratic votes that have come in early. and they want to know how that tallies against what happens in parts of the state that don't favor the democrats, right. they think they know where the baseline is at. at this point, nobody in any campaign believes this is a short night. they think it is a long night. we're talking about multiple changes of clothes, maybe not for steve kornacki because he loves those khakis. but there is no polling in georgia for a runoff election and even the polling that we had in november was not that reliable. so i do want to touch on something that you talked about before and i don't think we fully put our stamp on it which is it is something that you hear repeated a lot on this campaign trail by the democrats but will say it for people who aren't down in laeatlanta which is the jewish son of an immigrant and the black pastor of martin luther king jr.'s, church may be elected to the senate. and at time of tumult and america has become a country that people don't recognize, progress is being made in the same way that -- is a white man in politics forever and standing aside and maybe the president of the senate is the jamaican indian daughter of immigrants. america is two americas. but it is moving in a different direction and a lot of the tension we're seeing and the tumult is a result of that changing america, of the seesaw tipping and georgia is the locust of that right now and it is hard and chaotic but it is a beautiful thing to watch the struggle. >> alex wagner just gave me the feels. and i think we have such a hard time, i spoke for myself i have a hard time articulating in the blur and the flurry and the rage of the coup attempt on the other side, is this arc of history bending in the right direction in the view of a lot of americans before we know any of the results and before we start counting by county and grabbing on to what we know when the answer is not very much yet. your thoughts about tonight? >> yeah, i think i completely agree with everything that alex was just saying. and this is a historic moment. that moral arc of the universe that you talk about always hopefully bends toward justice. at least toward a diverse representation which is what we're seeing in kamala harris and down in georgia. and here is the thing, is that the people of georgia may know it. we may miss that because donald trump takes up a lot of toxic nasty air in the room but they're inspired because they put those two historic candidates in place in the first place. the thing that we're also fighting against, because we have this righteousness of change in the winds really on our side i think as diverse people in this country, is that we're also now faced with the nasty underbelly of georgia, of america that is surfacing and able to kind of fight that head on in a way that at least for me feels a bit cathartic to show up when you know that purd due had a bunch of white nationalists out there stumping for him and didn't think much about it. so be able to show up at the polls and say i'm directly going to vote against that nasty menace, there is something that feels empowering about that. to have agency in our lives to shift the winds of change is what wee see playing out in georgia that makes voters feel like it matters. so donald trump or anyone else could claim that the elections are false and that there was compete cheating but when your ballot has been counted and your efforts have put people in place the balance of the power of the united states senate is in your hands and you just switched the state and elected joe biden, that iss tha that is invigorating. steve just showed us that the youth turnout is lower than significantly for the general and i'm watching that. because just a week ago we saw that the early vote numbers showed that so many more people were voting in the runoff than voted that had not actually voted in the general election. so presumably there was a coming of age and a first time voters that was able to participate just within a month. and so i was thinking that there might be some youth movement in those numbers. that is definitely one to watch. but we could note, that no matter who wins that history is made in georgia and we're all on the wings of la tasha brown and stacey abrams down there to mobilize black voters in particular. >> david jolly, perdue and loeffler are now significantly to the right of dick cheney and don rumsfeld on the question of whether democracy itself matters. rumsfeld and chainy penned an op-ed with every other living secretary of defense that they articulated that the vote is over. loeffler and perdue are in another time zone from what used to be the far right position of the republican party. how do you see the outcome tonight shaping the future? >> yeah, well and the contrast of the moment, i mean, i'm listen to alex and aisha talk about the transformative moment brought to the nation by the democratic party out of the deep south state of georgia and i'm thinking back to the discipline messaging if there is any and it is all about radical socialism which maybe works in a republican primary but the disconnect between reaching for the future and just the insulting narrative that we're hearing from republicans is fascinating and it shows that the lack of depth in today's republican party and then you layer on what we're seeing from trump and the republicans trying to contest the election. you ask about the future and we'll watch this horse race all night but we could not overstate the significance of what the results mean. if republicans hold, mitch mcconnell will stop all of the big agenda items of joe biden. it is done. there is no big ticket items joe biden gets done. they will make significant changes in labor and health care and consumer protection through the administrative state through rule making through the annual budget that must get through congress but there is no major legislation. if democrats take these two seats tonight, the shot in the arm to democrats, even though it is a 50/50 senate will be dramatic. the amount of momentum behind a joe biden agenda will be significant tonight. and so we'll watch the horse race and dissect georgia turning blue but at the end of the day the entire nation is impacted and joe biden's administration hangs in the balance on the results in georgia tonight. >> you have all made me feel variety of hope and fear and keen interest in watching everything that shakes out tonight. thank you so much. we've lost steve kornacki to the big board. they are now one for the rest of the night. david jolly is sticking around. when we come back, big challenge as head, how to reach tens of millions people fed a big fat light about election fraud by donald trump. plus trump's assault on democracy now raising fears among allies around the world. not just that he's trying to steal an election he clearly lost, but that so many republicans are helping him do it. and the number of americans hospitalized with covid-19 hits a new high. it is a troubling sign as health officials grapple with containing the more contagious strain of the virus. 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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. and now during the lowest prices of the season, save up to $1000 on new sleep number 360 smart beds. only for a limited time. to learn more, go to sleepnumber.com. mr. president, there where are where americans that believe the results are legitimate. >> in the gentleman from florida has a point of order, he may state the point of order at this time otherwise the gentleman will suspend. may god bless our new president and our new vice president and may god bless the united states of america. that was then vice president al gore presiding over what pence is supposed to preside over tomorrow. gore was on the ballot in a narrow defeat result and in that clip he shoots down an attempt to contest the certification of the vote. vice president of both parties have to oversee this every four years. thanks to donald trump's refusal to acknowledge reality and the willingness of so many republicans to aid and abet his request to overturn the election result, all eyes are on mike pence tomorrow. trump has been putting the squeeze on him insisting that pence can throw out joe biden's victory even though pence can't. he has no authority to do so. and while the push by some republicans to object to the vote is all but certain to fail it may cause more harm to our democracy, to our country. one prominent d.c. attorney telling "the new york times" is the sedition caucus goes forward with their attack on the 2020 election abetted by the vice president it would torque our democracy for years to come. joining our conversation, jonathan swan, and matt visor. jonathan swan, i follow your twitter feed for all of your reporting that you jgenerously dump into it. what is the latest on the pressure campaign on the president to his number two. >> that is the nicest thing i've ever heard about my twitter feed. the back story here is interesting and we've reported it on axy os. the president didn't realize pence had this role until very recently. and the way he found out about it was the lincoln project came up with this ad in which they called the ad pence and they ran it just in the d.c. market. mostly on trump's favorite shows on fox designed for an audience of one. and the ad sort of over the top ominous framing points out to their audience of one that pence actually plays this role and will be sort of putting the ceremonial sound of death to president trump's presidency. trump sees this ad, becomes enraged and begins to take this up with mike pence privately. in a number of conversations, he asked mike pence to send cease and desist letters to the lincoln project which he doesn't do and starts asking pence to object when he has to certify the results. pence has been resisting but trump has become more and more irritated and now it is seeping out into public and you saw that last night in the rally in georgia. you saw that today. and the thing i'm picking up from allies of mike pence is they're worried that after four years of basically tieing himself to trump's hip, never doing anything disloyal, be -- in fact mocked by many for what many have described as sub servience, but at this last moment which is completely symbolic, which he has no constitutional role to overturn the results they are worried the president is going to exact revenge and damage him politically for potentially 2024. >> it is unbelievable but it is totally believable. if you look at pence story, his political marriage to donald trump began when he had to bite his lip, would you guess until it bled and stand by him when the access hollywood tape came out and trump refused to apologize or interview. they scheduled one and they canceled it. so that is pence's bet on the guy on the access hollywood tape who talked about when you are famous you could grab women in the bleep. it is not just a pressure campaign. it is bullying. it is online pressure. it is turning trump's voters against pence. at the rally last night, if you saw it, this is clearly a threat. and i just wonder, is all of your reporting still that pence is do what is he supposed to do, which is nothing, simply read the results of the vote. >> our friends at "the new york times" have had a great line today comparing mike pence to the person at the academy awards who reads out the winner. he has no role in deciding who the winner is. it is a ceremony task where he is just sort of announcing who won. and so he doesn't have much of a role. he doesn't have much control. but as jonathan was pointing out, mike pence is tied himself to trump so closely for four years. with the idea that he would be blessed at the end of inheriting the base that donald trump has tapped into. and now in the final throes of trump's presidency, you have the potential that all of that time that mike pence has spent tieing himself to trump could all be for not. and it is sort of in line with trump's whole history, his biography of using people when their useful and when their not, cutting them off at knees. an this is potentially another instance of that where he's frustrated that mike pence can't do something that mike pence has no power to actually do. so it is a really remarkable moment for pence, for trump, for the republican party, and as we'll see transpire tomorrow. >> jonathan swan, my impression was always that pence survived this far because he had some advisers who were frankly better than anybody that worked for the president. but it is my impression that even those superior political advisers and outside voices are now in a corner. just tell me what is happening in trump world? are they all on call, monitoring trump's twitter feed or learning things from reporters like yourself, is going on? >> there is a limit amount they could do here. the law is clear, pence's role it so count. it is to count. as matt said, it is entirely say ceremonial. and trump because he's been getting very creative and fairly cookie fringe legal opinions searching for the small slither of lawyers who will give him the information that he wants, is convinced that pence could somehow unilaterally overturn the results of the election and trump is being -- he's now seeking out the voices who are going to tell him what he wants to hear and he's not listening to anyone who tells him other wise. so pence really has no -- unless he wants to sort of stand up there and create a temper tantrum and do things that are illegal, if he basically does what the constitution asked him to do, he is inevitably going to get on the wrong side of president trump. and so you then get into conversations privately about, well, procedure, does it help him that there are going to be a republican objections which he could then sort of verbally sign off on, they go off into their chambers and have two hours of debate and come back, and that might help him, but they know what donald trump -- who he is and that there is a good chance that he's going to be vindicive and take vengeance upon pence. >> this is what a circular firing squad looks like. thank you so much. when we come back, as donald trump stakes a sledgehammer to democracy, mr. are worried about what he will do next and shocked that so many republicans are going along with it. that story is next. your groomers can't keep up. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base. so, you can start hiring right away. claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/groomer good morning, mr. sun. good morning, blair. [ chuckles ] whoo. i'm gonna grow big and strong. yes, you are. i'm gonna get this place all clean. i'll give you a hand. and i'm gonna put lisa on crutches! wait, what? said she's gonna need crutches. she fell pretty hard. you might want to clean that up, girl. excuse us. when owning a small business gets real, progressive helps protect what you built with customizable coverage. -and i'm gonna -- -eh, eh, eh. -donny, no. -oh. area homeownersm gonna -- -eh, eh, eh. learn how your neighbors are accessing $100,000s with a reverse mortgage loan from the bay area's #1 reverse mortgage lender. lemme tell you something. i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior. or worse, that it was some way to take your home. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home. it's a loan like any other. big difference is how you pay it back. discover if a reverse mortgage loan is right for you. use it to eliminate monthly mortgage payments pay of credit card bills, medical costs and more. with a reverse mortgage you can pay whatever you can when it works for you, or you can wait and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. find out more, call aag for your free information kit i'm proud to be a part of aag. i trust 'em. i think you can too. call now! if only we could just erase the trump years as a brief albeit embarrassing episode in our country's history. it won't be that easy. yes the framers prepare ford a want to be dictator like donald trump but did they envision where so many others will play along. imagine what they're saying on the assault in the rule of america. to observers the kroer ossive acts are not isolated to trump but extend to the deepen ablers around him and the white house and his party and even to an american public where significant numbers themselves believe that their democrat has been compromise pd and could not be trusted. the dangers that entail for allies will not be dispelled with a new president. joining our conversation is msnbc contributor and former deputy national security adviser ben rhodes and david jolly is back. and when i think about what president biden will contend with and that is leading a country where millions of people believe the lies that have been fed to them and i don't say this in any sympathy to them, they should be accountable for getting better quality information but it is a systemic problem akin to reaching into any near radicalized group and i wonder what you think about both the concern among allies and the challenge that it represents for president biden. >> well, nicolle, when i traveled around the world in the trump years, one of the things i found is what concerns american allies is not just the fact that donald trump is president, it is the fact that he was elected president and that the party has fully backed everything that donald trump has done. at a time, when countries like china and russia are very aggressively seeking to undermine the very concept of democracy. and seeking to bring an if alternative authoritarian and corrupt model into places like europe and the united states through the disinformation campaigns and the influence and the united states has been the country that imperfectly sought to promote and help dissidents in other countries and punish leaders who refused to recognize results of democratic elections and the message now is do as i say, not as i do when it comes to lindsey graham, what credibility does he or frankly the republican party have to ever lecture another country about democracy after what we're seeing now. so the problem is two fold. it is one, countries are looking at this and thinking well even if we could get along with joe biden, what happens if this returns in 2024. but secondly, more intangibly has america lost any credibility to lecture countries and the answer is yes. we can no longer be that shining city on a hill even if joe biden takes president. we have to do the work here at home. >> lindsey graham used to make sure that america could stand with democracy threatened by vladimir putin and the audacity if they tried to do that again, they haven't stood with the american democracy and not willing to oppose donald trump's attempt at a coup. what do you make -- and it is not good for our allies or our enemies when there is such a divide, it is not good for friends or allies when there is a partisan bend to our foreign policy. what does that por tend in your view for joe biden's foreign policy, ben? >> well, i think it makes it much more complicated. because already is there a trust of an agreement signed by a american president. president trump tried to throw out anything previous presidents negotiated. and in the back of every head of every adversary is i'm looking at republicans over joe biden's shoulder getting ready to run in 2024 and they might come in and junk the agreements themselves and then when joe biden gets on the phone to a foreign leader who refused to accepts the results of an election and i've been in the room when barack obama had to make those calls and it doesn't always work but sometimes we can make a difference and nudge countries in the direction of democracy and human rights. those leaders will say to him, well look at your democracy, who are you to lecture us about hong kong protests or the election in belarus was that was fraudulent. so we'll hear back from other countries that we don't want to hear any more lectures from america. >> and david jolly, that is true, american presidents have on a sheet for a call with a foreign leader all sorts of issues like the ones that ben is talking about and they go beyond honoring elections or making sure that elections are free and fair. they include not jailing reporters, they include not poisoning or jailing dissidents. donald trump has betrayed almost every fundamental tent ant of democracy. >> he has. and his legacy has been forged and we'll remember him for that and the republican party is a broken party but performing as strong as ever which suggests that our politics are so broken that we're willing to accept that type of leader in donald trump. but i don't want to pivot this to democrats' responsible but i want to paint two pictures if joe biden is talking to foreign leaders. one is aworld in which donald trump goes unchecked and the other is a world where donald trump is checked and i mean by that that a house of representatives should impeach him now a second time for his phone call to the secretary of state and they could say there is a party in the united states that tries to hold him accountable. but in the silence, and the narrative from hakeem jeffries that we're not looking backwards, we're looking forward, this is a crime right now for which the house of representatives could impeach donald trump. a world in which donald trump at least faces an attempt to be held accountable here in the united states to provide a different type of credibility for joe biden to represent the values of u.s. on the foreign stage. >> we need an hour to have this conversation and would you like to take that hour and get both of you to commit to being a part of it. ip think that feeds into everything. and i wonder personally if that is part of what explains a very slow and clearly deliberate process around joe biden's selection of an attorney general and because the question are we still a country that cares about the rule of law and all of the questions are on the line. i only have eight minutes left in the program. thank you so much for spending some time with us today. when we return, more americans are hospitalized with covid right now than at any other time since the pandemic began. experts are warning that those numbers could get worse. we'll be back with that story next. you have a powerful partner. new aveeno® restorative skin therapy. a unique formula with a rich complex of aloe, vitamin b5 and our highest concentration of prebiotic oat. it intensely moisturizes over time to improve skin's resilience. and nothing feels better than that. aveeno® healthy. it's our nature™. try the dermatologist-tested body wash and balm, too! it been now more than one month since us as a we down dco had fewer than 100,000 americans hospitalized with covid-19. today it's 128,000, the most of the entire pandemic, a record of 23,000 of them are in intensive care. as experts warn of a post holiday surge that will jolt us into a pandemic we don't even recognize, how much worse can it actually get? headlines like this today in southern california where icu capaci capacity is at zero. first responders told not to bring patients to hospital if survival chances are low. the u.s. surpassed 21 million cases. more than 355,000 americans lost their lives to covid. more than 18,000 in just the last week. for some perspective, the u.s. seen the most covid deaths in the world and now even more in the second and third world countries combined. joining us, an infectious disease physician and medical director with special pathogens at boston medical center. she's also an associate professor at boston university school of medicine. why is it so bad here right now? >> nicole, we're seeing the result of the holiday travel on top of what we're seeing is a large amount of community transmission before thanksgiving and christmas and now, you know, when i want to warn people is the numbers are going to go up partly because potentially with the cases and deaths, there is a lag in reporting during the holidays. i expect the numbers will shoot up. the scariest thing to me, as you know, we have about five states that have reported this new very ye -- variant and with holidays, that traveled with people when they traveled across the country. what you're likely to see is more cases leading to more hospitalizations and a portion of those may lead to more deaths. we are in parts of the country facing a collapse of the health care system. that's what that is when you have to choose between patients and who survives, that's what that is. that's the crisis of the standard of care. >> what, if any, offers an off ramp for our country right now? >> the vaccines. look, we got the vaccine, and now we have to get this vaccine into people's arms and on average, you're seeing one-third of the vaccines distributed to states in people's arms and the thing i keep coming back to, if this is a natural disaster or a national security issue, you see federal agencies and state agencies set up, emergency trucks to get vaccinations in people's arms and i wonder why isn't we doing this? more people have died in this pandemic than any war or any natural disaster in this country and really, sure, it might have been a lag because of the fact we only just started in the complex nightmare but we really should be opening up whatever we can to get this vaccinations in arms to stay ahead of what's likely to be a coming stream of new infections from the strain and holiday travels and keep following the public health measures. >> what is your ending why the shipments aren't ending up in people's arms? >> to me, the biggest issue right now seems to be the fact that there aren't enough administration sites. you heard governor newsom said they are opening new sites and governor santos said it because currently people are only getting vaccines from hospitals and pharmacies, both which are pretty strapped. the vaccines are going through existing health care delivery structures and what we need is a state organized federally supported increased number of sites where people can get these vaccines in their arms to get it out quicker. >> doctor, thank you for your expertise and spending time with us. we will be right back. d spendinh us we will be right back. where did it come from? 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"the beat" with ari melber starts now. >> hi, nicole. >> what am i going to do in 30 minutes? >> i don't know. step out and back? a little coffee, maybe. i'll see you soon. i want to welcome everyone to "the beat" on this big night of special coverage. we are, of course, one hour from polls closing in this pivotal georgia senate run off. two of them. as two democrats,