The latest from prosecutors in court and why the defense says the governments got the case all wrong. Melanias message. The first lady firing back at the former friend who shared secret recordings of their conversations. They are not with the parents. Its sad. But when they come here alone or with coyotes or illegally, you you know, you need to do something. How shes hand lynx the fallout and the way she chose to get her message across. Nfl setback. The patriots canceling practice after a new positive covid19 test. How more cases could affect the nfl schedule. Will they now be blitzing in the bubble . Hey, good morning, everybody. Great to be with you for another weekend. Lets get straight to our top story. With tminus 17 days until the election, President Trump and former Vice President joe biden are hitting the campaign trail hard focusing on key battlegrounds. President Trump Holding rallies overnight in florida and georgia while biden was mobilizing voters in michigan. The candidates painting very different pictures about where we are in this coronavirus pandemic. And as the candidates were out stumping for votes, early voting opened up in louisiana leading to long lines in some places like weve seen in other parts of the country and for the First Time Ever voters will be casting ballots at the famed fenway park in boston to give people a big open air space to vote. Abcs rachel scott is in washington, d. C. , one of several cities nationwide where the womens march will be focusing on getting out the vote as well. Rachel, good morning. Reporter whit, good morning. Thousands are expected at that march here in washington. Its one of 400 events happening all across the country with just 17 days to go. Both sides trying to frame the race around the pandemic. The president insisting that we are rounding the corner as his rival joe biden warns that with the rise in cases under the president s leadership its only getting worse. Overnight, President Trump behind in the polls hitting the campaign trail in states he carried four years ago. In georgia, a republican stronghold even contemplating a scenario where he would lose the election. Could you imagine if i lose . My whole life, what am i going to do . Im going to say i lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics. Im not going to feel so good. Maybe ill have to leave the country, i dont know. Reporter and in florida, speaking directly to seniors trying to win back that critical voting bloc his rival is now showing strength with. Seniors will be the first in line for the vaccine and we will soon be ending the pandemic. The light at the end of the tunnel is near. We are rounding the turn. Reporter on that same day the president made those remarks, the u. S. Hit a grim milestone 8 million coronavirus cases. Hours later Georgia State representative vernon jones seen crowd surfing at the president s rally without a mask passed around by supporters who werent wearing one either. Joe biden in michigan taking on the president claiming trump is in deep denial and americans are dying because of it. Turn the corner. My lord. Its not disappearing, in fact, its on the rise again. Its getting worse as predicted. Reporter a new Pew Research Poll showing the Vice President leading nationally by 30 points with latino, a key voting demographic. The Biden Campaign sitting down virtually with celebrity couple Jennifer Lopez and alex rodriguez. My kind of hope and quest for the Latino Community is that they start understanding their power. They understand exactly right. What they mean to the country, that their vote counts. Reporter more than 22 million americans have already cast their ballots. From new orleans to chicago, early voters rushing to the polls. Charles gill said he would wait in line for as long as it takes. The people before me that stood in line for me to give me this opportunity to stand here, im pretty sure they went through much more than i had to do. Reporter with just 17 days to go, former president barack obama will be hitting the campaign trail too, for the first time in person. At a democratic fundraiser saying winning in november is a necessity. A lot of times people used to call me no drama obama. Well, its true. I tend to be pretty steady. I dont engage in a lot of hyperbole, but this one really is the most important election that i can think of because our country is at a castroads. Reporter but the battle for the white house has already shaped up to be a bitter and ugly fight. Senator david perdue under fire for these comments he made about his colleague and bidens running mate, senator kamala harris, at the president s rally in georgia. Kamala or kamala, mala, mala, i dont know, whatever. Reporter harris spokesperson firing back, calling the remarks incredibly racist. And in this final stretch, some republicans now creating distance between themselves and the president. Two republican governors two republican governors, Charlie Baker in massachusetts and larry hogan in maryland now saying they will not be voting for President Trump and senator ben sasse of nebraska warning that if President Trump does lose the white house, it could bring the senate down with him. Eva. It is going to be an interesting couple of weeks, rachel. Thank you so much. Now to this pandemic. Cases surging across the country. The covid tracking project reporting that the latest daily case count, now more than 68,000, is the highest the country has seen since july 30th, and according to an internal department of health and Human Services memo obtained by abc news, 24 of hospitals across the country have more than 80 of their icu beds filled. That is a critical marker. Abcs trevor ault is outside a hospital here in new york city with the latest. Good morning to you, trevor. Reporter well, eva, good morning. The u. S. Has now hit 8 million confirmed cases of covid19 but even more concerning than the magnitude of that number is that once again the spread of this virus appears to be intensifying across huge sections of the United States. This morning, americas healthcare workers sounding the alarm as coronavirus cases surge across the u. S. Theres a huge disconnect i think with what the community thinks is happening and what we see happening in the hospital. Reporter this week, 11 states hit new record high case totals, 13 hit record hospitalizations. Two hit record deaths. In wisconsin, now averaging more than 3,000 cases a day broke records in all three categories. Particularly in our rural areas in northeast wisconsin, theres a very huge antimask sentiment and people still dont believe this is a real disease and were seeing some dramatic, very dangerous situations occurring in our community. Reporter in new mexico, hospitalizations have jumped 70 this month. The governor tweeting, we are past the point of prevention, more new mexicans will die. Texas now sending backup medical personnel to the panhandle, as amarillo and lubbock weather a surge. El paso seeing record high cases and the mayor with a warning . Were more than statistics. Were people. This pandemic is not going to go away until we have a vaccine. Reporter as the entire country waits for a vaccine, pfizer says it hopes to apply for emergency authorization for its drug assuming it hits the necessary safety milestones by the third week of november, as dr. Anthony fauci says hes concerned that politics have eroded the Publics Trust in science. Were already seeing expression of reluctance in not trusting the scientific establishment to free themselves of political influence about whether a vaccine is safe or effective. Reporter and schools still wrestling with how to safely manage inperson learning. One atlanta district is now going remote until the new year as an entire mississippi high school, 600 students, goes into quarantine. An unfortunate return aboard uss theodore roosevelt, where more than a thousand sailors tested positive months ago, now two positive tests popping up once again. And as we wait for a vaccine, the Trump Administration has announced a deal with cvs and walgreens to get a vaccine administered to nursing home patients and staff for free. Drug Companies Say it is going to take quite some time to manufacture enough doses for the entire country. Dan. So important, though, to protect the people in Nursing Homes and the people who work there. Trevor, thank you very much. Important also to note that we here in the u. S. Are not the only ones seeing a spike in cases. Theyre also rising over in europe and governments there are cracking down. Abcs Julia Macfarlane is on the story from london. Julia, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, dan. Thats right. Europe really thought it had beaten the worst of coronavirus but cases are once again soaring as testing has increased and also, dont forget, as winter and flu season draws closer, the hospitals are really starting to fill up. Theyre at pains to stave off the worst of this looming crisis while trying to avoid full national lockdowns. Here in london, 9 Million People have been ordered not to socialize indoors with people not living in their households. Prime minister Boris Johnson last night warning that the spread of covid19 in north of england is grave and that time is of the essence. Elsewhere in europe, france recording its highest number of daily cases and today imposing a curfew on the capital of paris and eight other areas. The finance minister there warning that all of these closures are going to cost the state more than a billion dollars. Meanwhile, germany and the czech republic, they have also recorded record rates of infections in recent days with more testing taking place. And in madrid, take a look at this hotel converted into a hospital to try to treat coronavirus patients who cant selfisolate at home including two mothers who very recently gave birth. Whit. Drastic measures to keep people safe. Julia macfarlane, thank you. Joining us now from los angeles is abc news medical contributor dr. Darien sutton whose specialty is emergency medicine. Dr. Sutton, thanks so much for joining us. We always appreciate it. I want to jump to this. You are an e. R. Doctor and seen the impact of this virus firsthand. With the troubling increases in cases and hospitalizations across the country, what trends are most concerning you and is there a difference between whats happening in our hospitals now and the first outbreaks we saw in the spring . Good morning. So these trends are really concerning because as was stated earlier, when this pandemic started to pick up its pace in march and april that was during the spring and most importantly, that was during the tail end of the thencurrent flu season. Now were marching into this flu season with more cases than we had at that time, at that time it was approximately 30,000 cases, and now were seeing approximately 60,000 cases. So its incredibly concerning and we have to remain very cautious to prevent battling simultaneous effects of the covid19 virus as well as the influenza virus. And speaking of the flu season, flu activity so far has been low, of course its early in the season, and maybe because in some part people are social distancing, staying home, wearing masks, but what are your recommendations on when to get the flu vaccine and could we see a shortage this year . So, hopeful that were not going to see a shortage. I know that there is likely an increase in demand due to Public Health education. In terms of the flu vaccine and when to get it, my recommendation is to get it as soon as possible. If you can get it, get it today, because its never been more important. And a new cdc study highlights how minority and ethnic groups are disproportionately impacted by this virus. Some numbers here that we wanted to put up on the screen from may to august, 51 of those who died from covid were white, 24 hispanic or latino and nearly 19 were black. What are the implications of those findings . So, unfortunately, this data and this evidence does not makes us aware of a problem that were all very well aware of h whicis that black and latinx communities are at increased rates of infection and at risk of death from covid19. And were also seeing these numbers in American Indian and alaskan native populations. A part of the reason why this continues to be is because the country is not doing the best job at handling this problem. Most specifically data. Were at shortage of data. As most states are not reporting test results as per by race and ethnicity, and this makes it exceptionally more and more difficult to identify vulnerable communities, where we can enact different changes in policy, care and supplies, so we need to focus on the data and make sure that we advocate for this data, because its never been more important until this time. One of the Disturbing Trends, one of the many Disturbing Trends throughout the pandemic. Dr. Sutton, thanks for your time. We truly appreciate it. Thank you. Eva, over to you. Now to the alleged plot to kidnap michigans governor, newly released video shows the suspects armed with weapons and allegedly conducting surveillance of governor Gretchen Whitmers home as the judge in the case rules there is enough evidence to present to a grand jury. Now, we have to warn you, some of these images may be disturbing. This morning, were getting our first look at these newly released images, this one allegedly showing one of the suspects surveilling michigan governor Gretchen WhitmersVacation Home and part of a plot to kidnap her. And in this video Authorities Say one of the suspects shows off a cache of weapons, so far, 14 alleged members of the group have been arrested with the fbi and prosecutors arguing in court that the men should not be released pending trial because theyre too dangerous. Abc affiliate wxyz obtaining this Police Dash Cam video showing one suspect being pulled over last month during a routine traffic stop. Shortly afterwards, the fbi says caserta sent texts to the group saying he wished to kill the officers who pulled him over writing, they work night shift. I could easily tap em and dip and no one would know a thing. In this video posted on social media, caserta endorses violence against the government. Im an anarchist. Defensive force is legitimate. Reporter but Defense Attorneys claim it was all big talk. Were talking about guys who want to run around in the woods with guns and say bad things about the government. So what were talking about is a First Amendment right to assembly, a First Amendment right to speech. Reporter and prosecutors say the suspects got caught because theyre amateurs but that doesnt mean they arent dangerous. All five michigan men are being held without bond. Dan. Meanwhile, this morning, the white house is now reversing course granting californias request for Disaster Relief after what has been the states worst fire season on record. The white house says President Trumps denial of the original claim for victims of the devastating fires that have been burning since Early September including the creek fire, the largest fire in state history, saying the state had not provided, quote unquote, relevant data. After an outcry and a call from Governor Newsom the president approved the aid. Speaking of fires, several alerts are in effect across colorado this morning as well following record fires there. Rob is joining us from connecticut with a look at how the weather could impact the fires burning in the west. Rob, good morning to you. Good morning, whit. Fire weather not necessarily improving there. California, colorado, the two cs really getting hit hard this year with record numbers and this is the cameron peak fire. Want to show you this, starting backfires trying to control it in any way they can. Its already the largest fire in colorado history with over 170,000 acres burned. They do have 50 containment but its just huge and look at the smoke plumes coming out. This is loveland, colorado, and the winds today will be such the red flag warnings will remain posted. Thats not the only fire burning across the inner mountain west. Smoky go across the high country of colorado. Winds could gust over 20, 30 miles an hour in steamboat, thats close to one of the fires, and the smoke in denver is bad and air quality is horrific there. Much like what we saw in california just a week or so ago and some of that smoke is going to be pushed off towards the east, so a lot of people east of the rockies have seen some of this haze and smoke and bad air quality as this recordsetting wildfire season continues. Well talk more about whats going on in california. This cold morning in just a ducks, the gulls are all squawking here in westport. Its cold for them too. Chilly morning across the east. First time this year you can see my breath. Its coming, guys. Get ready. We can see your breath. We cant see your face because of the beard but i will say actually seeing you against that new england backdrop with the beard reminds me of when you were in that movie the perfect storm. Its like its bringing me back. Fond memories of that. You know, its the real deal. Me and george. Of course. Salty sea captain. Goodness gracious you guys making fun of him with the beard. It looks good, rob. Its never going to end until he shaves and it wont end there either to be honest. Moving on now, a child prodigy is getting a special reward for his hard work. Tv host steve harvey stepping in to foot the bill for the tuition at the 12yearolds dream college. Abcs elwyn lopez joins us from georgia tech with the details. Good morning, elwyn. Reporter good morning, eva. Georgia tech is looking at a potential new student but unl