Hi, everybody. Its 4 00 in washington. Im jen psaki in today for nicolle wallace. You can ask someone to find 11,000 votes in georgia, we know someone who did, or you can go out and earn them. Thats how it should be done. Stump for them, shake hands, kiss a lot of babies for them. Show up places where people might be priced to see you because their community is very much in favor of your opponent. Youre wondering why youre there. Even in the course of an election both candidates insist is the most important of our lifetimes, theres nothing quite like a good oldfashioned barnstorming. With that plane door opening in savannah moments ago, right there, Vice President harris, back on the trail in a freshly painted bus. Maybe well get to see inside the bus. Well see over the next two hours. We should expect to see more of them well bring that to you as it comes as well. Their mission over the next day and a half in georgia is to boldly go where so few democrats, at least ones running for president lately, have gone before. South georgia. Politico calls it a high riskhigh reward strategy extending down into southeastern counties rural and red as they are. Its also all a part of of a remarkable shift in course. As nbc news notes this was not a state, at least in the past couple months, the bypass team was begtsz on for november at all. But the switch to Vice President harris appears to have awoken something inside the party, maybe inside georgia. A Renewed Optimism that maybe 2020 wasnt a fluke, that maybe georgia really is a Battleground State that everybody should be competing in every four years. Dont take our word for it. Ask the chairman of the Republican Party. Heres what they had to say. I was very, very comfortable that it would be, not an easy win, but would be a four or fivepoint win. I think its going to be a little tighter now because i think shes energized a few of the democrats that were not energized before and they seem to be a little more active. The party will hope to recreate the success it had last cycle when senator Raphael WarnocksWinning Strategy included appealing to many voters showing up places nobody expect them to show up. As nbc news reported, quote, to win georgia, harris will need to reproduce the formula that powered biden and warnock, boosting turnout and mobilizing democrats in deep blue atlanta, putting big points on the board in the population rich suburbs, full of welleducated voters skeptical of trump and limiting her margin of defeat in a vast and solidly red rural areas losing by less could hinder the states 16 electoral vote. Thats the plan for today and tomorrow. Hopping from county to county, small town to small town, culminating in a rally tomorrow back in savannah. If you can believe it there are just ten tuesdays left until election day. A georgia win would be quite a win in november. Democrats still have their work cut out for them, but it appears that harris and walz are getting to work. Thats where we start today with former Atlanta Mayor and adviser to the harriswalz campaign Keisha Lance Bottoms. You know a thing or two about georgia politics and seen a lot happen over the past couple weeks. Start with this overall strategy, because theres often a lot of focus on atlanta running up the vote totally in atlanta, but its hard to win statewide without running up totals in other places. What do you think of this bus tour strategy into South Georgia this is a campaign who is listening. As i said on the floor next to a delegate this past week in chicago, he said, i think walz and harris would be great coming through rural parts of georgia and now they are doing just that. We have about nearly 12 Million People in georgia, about half of that population is in the metro area, so that means there are a lot of other folk out there throughout georgia and for as much as i love atlanta we say get out of atlanta. There are a lot of active communities throughout the state and even when you think of a place like savannah where senator warnock is from, thats a completely different media market. Youve got places like columbus, macon, augusta, savannah, chatham county, one of the largest counties in the state. Just west of that, another county one of the Fastest Growing in the nation. Im very happy to see that the campaign is there, and i can tell you the people are so excited to see that they are getting the attention they deserve from this campaign. Georgia, if you look back at the margins, i looked them up today, because we think its interesting for people to note this, trumps margin in 2016 was 211,000 votes. Bidens margin in 2020, 11,000 votes. Some of this is kind of campaigning in places where people dont have havent gone before. There are issues that the harriswalz campaign is talking about like Rural Health Care. What are the other issues you hope theyre talking about as theyre out there and people really need to hear about in georgia to consider this ticket . Well, we know that immigration is a big topic of discussion throughout this state. We also know there are a lot of conversations surrounding the economy, and i think what you will see is the Vice President and governor walz will go out and talk about how the Bidenharris Administration has delivered to this state, although republicans seem to love to take credit for those things that are coming from this administration and no republican voted to support the things coming from this administration, but nfrls its made a difference in the state. We know that immigration is a big topic of discussion and also we talk about Labor Shortages throughout this state. So those Kitchen Table issues that impact our communities, im sure well hear talk about how they have delivered directly to mayors and to counties so that we can put things in place to help with the crime surge that we saw during the Trump Administration and the covid pandemic. All of these things will be relevant to the people that they will see in these counties throughout the state. Its so interesting, youre a very savvy politician, i dont have to tell you, you bring up immigration and crime, these are two of the issues trump may be nonsensical when at speeches but those are two issues they are spending money on, the Trump Campaign and the republicans, on the airwaves around georgia and other parts of the country. What do you think, its not on the level as my mother would say, what do you think people need to know and understand about the harris record and her positions on immigration and crime to kind of combat all of that money thats being spent on the airwaves . Yeah. Jen, i was mayor when trump was president , and it was complete chaos and so much of it was driven from what was coming from the white house. And i remember my first meeting in the white house, you may remember that, it was in march of 21 where we sat down and we talked with a Bipartisan Group of mayors and governors about what we needed in our respective communities, and we talked about getting money directly into the hands of leaders so that we could reinforce the strategies we had put in place to help address this crime surge. That was a crime surge that happened under the Trump Administration in cities across america. Also with immigration. There was a bipartisan Immigration Bill ready to go, and donald trump said, it wouldnt be good for his election. So this is not a candidate who is serious about resolving the issues in our country, and i know that Vice President harris will continue to hone in on that. When we had that meeting in the oval office, she was sitting right there in that meeting next to President Biden to help us address some of the issues that we were facing in our respective communities. Part of what weve been talking about a little bit and we just quoted the chairman of the republican gwinnett Republican County Party is sort of the surge of energy. You were a big supporter of President Biden. President bidens candidacy. Youre a big supporter of Vice President harris candidacy. There seems to have been a surge in energy over the past couple weeks. What are you hearing from people in georgia in terms of democrats and people who may have been sitting on the sidelines a month ago . What i always say, my favorite motto from campaigning is the streets dont lie. When the streets are excited, when youre going in the Grocery Store and the hair salon and the barber shop and people are talking, they are excited, we had so much energy coming out of the convention, people are still talking about the convention, theres not a day that goes by that multiple people ask me, how was it in person . Because it looked so exciting on television. So the energy is real. Now we just have to make sure that we carry that energy on into the election. My 22yearold son has received four mailers in the last week from the donald Trump Campaign. So what it says is that they arent leaving anything to chance. For as much as we have excitement, weve got to take it directly to the people. Thats the way we did it in 21, thats the way we did it in 22 and thats the way we did it in 20 and thats why we were able to send warnock and ossoff and the Bidenharris Administration to washington, d. C. Such an important reminder. The convention was really exciting for everybody, but there is a lot of work ahead. I love the street dont lie. Thank you so much, Keisha Lance Bottoms. Love talking to you. Thanks for starting us off this afternoon. Lets bring in our panel, msnbc political analyst and democratic strategist Cornell Belcher is here. Also joining us Executive Director of Republican Voters against trump and publisher of the bulwark sara longwell, also host of the podcast the amendment, political analyst erin paynes. Cornell, youre here in studio. Let me start with you. Georgia would be a great win for the harriswalz team and its on the east coast and give people some sort of soothing moment. Stop panicking. Earlyish in the evening. But talk to me a little bit about whats happening on the ground. Its a combination of strategies as they say. You need to run up the vote in the atlanta suburbs and you also need to shrink the margins in the other parts of georgia. What do they need to do in order to win there . A couple notes, right. If you look at whats happening in the big run up in the suburbs, look t its interesting, we were talking to the gop leader from gwinnett county. Gwinnett was a solidly republican county when i was working on the Obama Campaign in 2012. Romney carried gwinnett by 10 points. Biden was able to carry gwinnett in 2020 and got 100,000 more votes out of gwinnett than we did in 2012, which helps explain it. If you look at that sort of middle of georgia running from augusta to columbus, there is a thin Light Blue Belt that is emerging of county downs there. It makes all the sense in the world to go down there and sort of energize and make those counties blue and lower the margins and the red point. You have Democratic Energy but this is the other thing happening. Donald trump is turning off moderate voters, right. Theres a reason why a kemp can win georgia many aspects. So many. Look at the women and the misogyny and the taking away your right to decide what happens to your body. So biden won moderate voters in georgia by 32 points. Right. And it is hard and Trump Campaign can make inroads with moderate Middle Of The Road voters who have been breaking republican in georgia beginning sort of move democratic and we saw that in 20 and also as my former client pointed out we saw that in the senate races and the midterm races that happened. Theres interesting trends. It still is a hard still is a state harder to win than some other states in some ways. Erin, you were born and raised in georgia. I was asking Keisha Lance Bottoms this question, what are you hearing from people about whats going on on the ground and how things have shifted over the last couple weeks . Yeah. Absolutely. Atlanta native here, checking in. Listen, i mean mayor bottoms was right. There are 158 other counties in georgia that do not include atlanta, and i mean they are a target rich environment for any candidate that is willing to go out and try to earn those votes. So Vice President harris and governor walz are in the state and in this particular part of the state directly coming out of the convention. I think really sends a message that they understand that these are voters in place. The risk is not in getting outside of atlanta this year. This is a part of the state, i know, i hear from young people who are in many of the historically black colleges down there, hoping that they might have a chance to see, you know, somebody like a Vice President harris. You talked about the Rural Health Care issue. This is a part of the state where rural hospitals disappeared, people disproportionately died during covid, but also wanted to get back to work, where people are still worried about the price of groceries and gas, right, and they want to know what this, you know, what Vice President harris could potentially be doing for them. So Governor Brian Kemp may be popular in georgia. He certainly is. Hes not on the ballot this year. Harris is showing shes willing to work for those votes too. In terms of how shes doing that, one thing that, you know, we have a story up on the 19th right now about the conservative suburban white women in a lot of these women that harris and walz are going to, who may be open to the message that harris has been talking about in terms of patriotism and reframing that. What it means to have a healthy democracy, issues like abortion or gun violence or paid family leave. This is a message that could resonate with them in those parts of the state. This is these are the kinds of issues they are telling us they care about and they want to hear about from the candidates, and it could resonate with black voters outside of cities. People forget that this part of georgia is also part of the black belt, rural people are black people too, and they vote especially in president ial years where, you know, theyre not necessarily limited to districts that have been gerrymandered by republicans. In president ial years they do feel like their vote, you know, may pack a lot more punch and so youll see them turn out if they are courted and spoken to by candidates. Yeah. The showing up makes a different strategy kind of sounds obvious, one that obama ran on, obviously, war knock ran on. Let me ask you, i guess putting it diplomatically to say that georgia is a complicated political state for the Republican Party, but whats interesting [ inaudible ] geoff duncan the former Lieutenant Governor spoke at the Democratic Convention last week, i want to play that and talk to you after that about just kind of all the republican players in this and how much they matter. My journey started to this podium years ago when i realized donald trump was willing to lie, cheat, and steal to try to overturn the 2020 election. I realized trump was a direct threat to democracy, and his actions disqualified him from ever, ever, ever stepping foot into the oval office again. Agan if you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, youre not a democrat. Youre a patriot. I didnt think it was going to move maga voters but it was giving license to support harris. But i want to [ inaudible ] campaigning for trump and campaigning with him. How much do all of these republican figures in georgia who are many of whom are quite popular matter . Well, they matter in the sense that donald trump continues to lose georgia in part because he attacks the very popular republicans in the state. You know, most recently he was attacking brian kemp and brian kemps wife which really upset a lot of the women in the state who are supporters of the kemp family and like them. He also attacks brad raffensperger, the secretary of state, he called up to say hey, i need you to go find me 11,000 votes. And so many of the republican political figures there in georgia who have refused to overturn the election as donald trump wanted them to do, donald trump has been attacking them relentlessly and because of the fact that georgias one of the places where donald trump really like put the pressure on to overturn the election, every time hes in georgia, he talks about the election, and it being stolen from him and about raffensperger and kemp not doing what it took, and voters are sick of that. They are bored. I mean, except for the very maga base, who, you know, want to be aggrieved over the 2020 election, the vast majority of the swing voters, soft republicans, the right leaning independents, moderates, many of whom their votes are sort of up for grabs and theyve been decisive in these elections the last couple cycles they really dont like that grievance based the election was stolen narrative and thats the one that trump seems to put forward the most in georgia which continues to cost republicans that state. He gets whiney in georgia, is another way of saying it. No one is going anywhere. Well keep talking abou