Uptotheminute news on election news every day at 1 00 p. M. Eastern and today i will be joined by former House SpeakerNewt Gingrich who is a i strong supporter of President Trump and in just one minute i will be joined by former attorney general eric holder who has been working on redistricting for years now with president obama and has been advocating for democratic nominee joe biden. Two great guest today but first i wanted to run through my notebook a little bit of the headline and i am paying attention to in these final days in florida and florida, florida your member in 2000 said that was a focus for that election and seems to be the focus once again for Vice President biden and President Trump in the tampa area today because they know the corridor vote is key and you also see Vice President biden going to Broward County and making sure black voters in voters are coming out strong and we talked to general holder about that and Voter Suppression issues in florida and across the south and across the country but it is notable that florida is this both paying attention to that is in play and a new poll shows nbc marriage poll says Vice President biden is a hair net orally for the 1 would likely voters President Trump is 47 of likely voters and that is within the polls margin of error and next big story in pennsylvania there is unrest there and the Deadly Police shooting of a black man philadelphia is roiled his campaign and Vice President biden has also seizednd on the news in pennsylvania of a rising number of coronavirus cases succeeded now 200,000 in upstate and you can see in the final days the competing narrative from the trump side law and atorder but Vice President biden is being critical of any rioting and looting and swinging that spotlight pennsylvaniati on the pandemic and my sources tell me he speaking to suburban voters as well as urban voters with that message. Immigration can forget about that and Vice President biden knows he needs to get the latino vote and knows that beyond the latino vote give suburban people paying attention to this issue as well and you think aboutto children being separated from the families but biden has announced a task force about making sure immigration is in the headlines in the final days and then real quick Vice President ial candidates you have senator harris reaching out to historically black universities today and Vice President pence is in iowa and making sure even della gold voters come out and is being too conservative voters out in nevada. I want to bring in eric holder hemer attorney general and is now chairman of the Democratic Redistricting Committee and welcome to the program, attorney general holder. Thank you for having me and i look forward to the conversation. Were tracking Voter Suppression and redistricting efforts across the country but lets start with Voter Suppression but what are you paying attention to five days to go . You know, the concerns i have about the long lines which i think reflect overwhelmingus enthusiasm by the American People but i also note that studies have shown few are africanamerican you are seven times more likely to have to wait in line over one hour then your white counterpart. And concerned about that andt. Concerned about the measures that have been taken by the Republican Party to keep people away from the polls and now they are going so far to say that they dont want to count all the votes that had been cast and there have been lawsuits in texas by republicans to somehow take those votes that already been cast by people who drove up in their cars and not count those votes. It literally strikes me that this is something that is a major differentiator between the parties and democrats want people to vote as possible and want all the votes to be counted and republicans want to restrict the numbers of people who can vote and then apparently dont want to count them all the votes. That is inconsistent with who we say we are as an american democracy. We remember ten years ago covering this at the post and the republican speaking across, not only congressional races but state houses and are going to do better this timee around in was state legislative seats . Good question. At i think the democrats will do better and quite frankly democrats didnt focus on those state legislative races to the extent we should have in 2010 as resulted in the 2011 redistricting went well for the republicans and led to the gerrymandering we have seen and that has affected our politics over the course of this last decade. Think democrats are focusing on statelevel races and that is something ive been doing going around the country and telling people i get it and this is an x essential president ial election but he got to focus on these down ballot races and state legislative races will probably have a greater impact on your life on a daytoday basis because these are the places where decisions are madeas on a womens productive rights and criminal Justice Reform and undoubtedly come from the state out of healthcare decisions will calmm from the state and theres a whole variety of things that come from states as opposed toro the federal government. Could you be more pacific attorney general holder, which states do you believe democrats will do the best in on the state level . I think we will do a whole bunch of states because of the work weve done when we have independent commissions now drawing the line so we will do well in michigan, North Carolina and they expect we will do well in texas, ohio, pennsylvania and there have been structural changes that we put in place to make the votes more fair at this time so i think that to the extent we had concerns in 2010 those will not be replicated in 2020. When you look at a state like florida where the candidates are going today my sources there tell me on the democraticca side they are concerned that white voters are casting ballots at a higher rate than black voters. What explains that and what does that mean for this campaign . First, im not sure thats true but i see pretty extensive amounts of support and enthusiasm by africanamerican voters. Su i think not only for thear candidacy of joe biden and Kamala Harris but also as a reaction to the efforts to suppress the vote in the Africanamerican Community and and im not seen those kinds of reports but im pretty confident that we will see a very robust turnout in the Africanamerican Community, not only in florida but around the countrybu. To believe the Biden Campaign is fully prepared for the postelection fight in the courts . Yes, i think we are. I hope it doesnt come down to a fight postelection in the courts and i think we can avoid that by simile counting all the votes and i think they will be a winner and expect it will be a pretty decisive winner but to the extent it comes down to ane court battle we have lawyers at campaign had cantors and lawyers all around the country on working with groups who are interested in these issues toe coordinate to the extent that we can so we have our legal bases all covered. What about the doj . You were attorney general of the United States and you look at attorney general barr and how do you believe he is positioned for this election does anything concern you . Yes, it gives me a great deal of concern. Under republican as well as democratic attorneys general been a player for fairness and has posted monitors on the country in those places where you expected to see problems and i dont expect that from the Justice Department this time. If the justice apartment were neutral there would be a bit of a disappointment, not focusing on fairness but i think that this attorney general is weapon iced the Justice Department in service to the president and appointed him and that gives me a great deal of concern. What you mean by weapon iced . How has he weapon iced it . Wall, coming out for doing things that are consistent with the president s best political interest, whether interfering in cases that put support of the president at risk with regard to man afford and stone and people like that and with regard to the wayy in which they have taken positions in election cases and there is a whole variety of ways in which this attorney general has put the Justice Department on the side of the president as opposed to the people. Your friend and longtime ally resident obama was in florida earlier this week and im sure you saw that speech so where do you believe he should go in the final few days of this campaignh i think hes getting a few things off his chest so that was pretty interesting to watch but i think that he will go to place where he needs to be and certainly florida and i would think that the industrial midwest is a place that will require some attention towards the end of the election process and i think democratss. Still suffering ptsd from what happened in 2016 and dont want to repeat what were perceived to be a mistake by not devoting ,ttention to michigan, wisconsin in pennsylvania and pennsylvania is obviously a critical state but i dont think we should forget michigan and wisconsin as well. What is your assessment of the Postal Service at this moment and its ability to monitor and to manage all the balance coming through . Postal service has been crippled and as i said in a tweet yesterday or the dayin before people need to not use the Postal Service and not rely on the Postal Service to get their mail in ballots to the ballot place on time and theres been a deliberate attempt by the Trump Administration and by the postmaster general to decrease the ability of the Postal Service to handle these Record Number of male and ballots and all the studies show the firstclass mail are down well below 90 which i think is acceptable rate and they have been successful and what it is they have tried to do and i hope they will be held accountable for what they have successfully done in the next administration but now is not the time to rely on the mail to try to get your ballots in on time. On the Voter Suppression question there is the physical activity at polling places and intimidation but what about people who are concerned their mail in vote might not count because they made a mistake on the envelope or did not fold something correctly so how could that actually affect the final tally . Y . I dont know the extent to which this will be a problem but it is something that gives me concern and it is why my organization the National Democratic committee tried to File Lawsuits to make sure that palates dont get passed over for crazy reasons like signature matches but how many people can say that your signature has remained constant, absolutely constant over the course of your life to make sure that people are doing the right thing we saw and penciling at the problem with naked ballots not putting your ballot into that security envelope and theres a whole variety of things that people, unfamiliar with the mail and ballot process perhaps have not done and that gives me some concern that ballots that are legitimately filled out for technical reasons might not be counted. Im worried about that and am very worried about that. You seen the rise in militia groups nationwide and the threats on different democratic governors and is the department of justice under President Trump doing enough to address that threat . It depends on what part of the Justice Department youre looking at. If youou look at the fbi i think direct array is rightly called out the problem with these white supremacist groups in the militia groups and expressed the fact that those are primary concern and im not seen the same kind of rhetoric coming out of the attorney general, Deputy Attorney general and they have been, i think, notably and unfortunately silent when it comes to that. I have great faith and the men and women of the Justice Department and great faith in the people at the fbi so i think these problems will be handled but i think a tone of un acceptance has to be expressed by the leaders of this nation and i would expect to hear president come out out against esem with the militia groups have done in michigan and i was back to hear that also from the attorney general and they had not given voice to the concerns i think they ought to have to the extent that they should. And Vice President biden wins the white house should he retain chris ray as fbi director . Yet, i dont see any reason why direct array should not finish out his ten year term and those ten year terms are there so he has stability at the fbi so you dont have what we had with director hoover so i dont see any reason why anybody would have lost faith in the job that he has done pretty hes had quite a tough job to navigate that which has been thrown at him by the president , criticism that has come his way what i think i support it and its his nomination and i dont see basis now to not hold him on . To support the effort to prosecute President Trump potentially if he loses the election out of office . Tr that is certainly something that has to be considered and i think a look has to be taken at the cases that might be made against him at the least of which is that case of involved Michael Cohen with the president was individual number one and thats a partial determination that has to be made but i think accountability is something that i think has to be a guide but we also have to understand what is the impact and what would the impact be of the prosecution of a former president . Nation that wants to heal in a new administration that wants to enact the program that it ran on and would that be too large a distraction so there will be at fold between accountability and the desire to move on. What you mean and that tension . I actually think given the breadth of corruption we have seen in the Trump Administration that i tend to lean towards accountability but not only with regard to the president but those who served within the administration and abused their offices. D if Vice President wins are b you hoping to return to accounte position . [laughter] thats not something i considered but i will try to serve in any way that i can but i suspect the Vice President in the new Vice PresidentKamala Harris had their eyes on new folks to serve in the cabinet. Final thing here attorney general holder you are watching the final debate y and in recent days by spasm biden you talk about hismm regrets on immigratn during the obama years and do you share his aggressive about donot being able to enact cap transit Immigration Reform . Im not sure i would call it regret. Regret and the results but you have to remember that the bipartisan bill came out from the United States senate and the people were behind the bill deserve a great deal of credit. It took political courage. That bill never got a vote in the United States house of representatives john gaynor never put that measure before the house and they knew that it would pass, the Freedom Caucus presented that inca from being presented by regret the fact that conference of Immigration Reform was not acted upon. It could have been acted upon by republican failures in the house prevented it from occurring. To the extent i have any regrets that there wasnt the leadership the needed leadership in the house of representativesle. One other thing itinerary general holder if youre not ready to jump back in the cabinet life who do you think Vice President biden, if he wins should pick at the next attorney general . I think hes got a lot of good choices. You want to look for somebodys. Who has some degree of familiarity with his department and i dont think its time for people learning on the job. Somebody who will meet the moment and deal with the civil unrest that has engulfed our nation and the need for criminal Justice Reform and the need for an enhanced Justice Department to protect the right to vote so somebody who has that experience and somebody who is got the ability to meet the moment and will be politically savvy and there will be a lot of things thrown at them at the next attorney general, fair and unfair that will requireex some degree of political action. No name mentioned and we will leave it there. Attorney general eric holder we appreciate your time and hope you come back soon. Thank you for having me. Ak i went out to two former House SpeakerNewt Gingrich