In 41 states doctors and nurses overwhelmed. And this is by far the highest number of patients that weve had since the pandemic began. And breaking news in the race for the vaccine, the controversial new challenge trials Just Announced this morning. Fire and ice. Firefighters swarm by red smoke and strong winds as they battle a recordbreaking wildfire outbreak in colorado. And the october snow now covering the midwest. Ginger tracking the latest. Jeff Bridges Health battle. Overnight the oscarwinning actor revealing hes been diagnosed with lymphoma. What hes saying about his condition and his message for fans this morning. Lucky to be alive. The couple surviving this terrifying crash careening into a canal saved by hero Good Samaritans. The gas station worker and offduty officer who raced in to help. Signed, sealed, delivered and Holiday Shopping surge. The new alert about ordering packages during the pandemic as experts predict Record Online shopping, when to order those gifts by to beat the shipathon. You can never go wrong starting the morning with a little stevie wonder. Good morning, america. Great to be with you on this tuesday morning. Tminus two weeks until the election. Thats right. We are already seeing record turnout at the polls. In florida, where early voting began on monday, more than 350,000 people cast their ballots in person this. Morning, polls are opening in another swing state, wisconsin. At least 31 million americans have already voted. Thats more than 20 of the total vote in 2016 and overnight new rules were put in place for thursdays final debate. President trump downplayed the pandemic in an arizona rally and senior White House Correspondent cecilia vega starts us off. Good morning, cecilia. Reporter hey, george, good morning. President trump is on an aggressive swing through the key battleground states hoping for a lastminute surge and as you said he is downplaying the virus. He is also attacking dr. Anthony fauci, but the big question this morning is whether this will appeal to anyone outside of his most loyal base. As the country faces a third coronavirus wave and more than 220,000 deaths, President Trump on the trail saying voters are tired of hearing about the pandemic. People are pandemicd out. You know that . Reporter the president on a swing through the battleground of arizona where cases are on the rise. The packed crowd mostly without masks. With polls showing a majority of americans unhappy with his handling of the virus, President Trump now laser focused on a new target, the nations leading Infectious Disease expert. People are tired of hearing fauci and all these idiots. Reporter on a call with his Campaign Team, the president on the attack against dr. Anthony fauci. Every time he goes on television theres always a bomb, but there is a bigger bomb if you fire him. Reporter but when it comes to the virus, voters overwhelmingly trust dr. Fauci over the president. We are really, you know, going through a time thats disturbingly antiscience in certain segments of our society. Thats very troublesome to me. Reporter fauci telling 60 minutes the attacks have led to Death Threats. Have there been Death Threats against you and your family . Yes. All of you, not just harassment against the rest of the family. Reporter even the president s allies coming to faucis defense, Lamar Alexander tweeting, if more americans paid attention to his advice wed have fewer cases of covid19 and it would be safe to go back to school and back to work and out to eat. Joe biden off the campaign trail preparing for thursdays debate saying the president attacking him for listening to scientists isnt actually an attack, its, quote, a badge of honor. And this morning, with just two days to go until that final faceoff, the Debate Commission announcing a major change to the debate stage. As one candidate gives his twominute answer, the others microphone will be muted. But both microphones will be left on during followup discussions. The change coming after that first debate debacle. You made a point, let him answer. Reporter President Trump repeatedly interrupting and ignoring the rules. Now, the Debate Commission making these changes hoping to avoid that scenario this time around. Of course, President Trump refused to attend that second debate after the format was changed to online when he contracted covid. The Trump Campaign says hes committed to attend thursday, but overnight, he called these rule changes unfair. The campaign is trying to push to get the topic switched to a Foreign Policy debate but the Debate Commission says it is up to the moderator, not to the kchbd candidates to cheese these topics. And the campaign had agreed to that weeks and months ago. We also, cecilia, have a in poll out from one of his must wins states that shows a tossup. Reporter a virtual dead heat in North Carolina. 49 biden, 48 for trump buoyed by evangelical and rural supporters. Its a big deal. A democratic candidate has only won North Carolina twice in the last half century. This this is going to concern the trump team. This is a state he narrowly won back in 2016 and one they really need to win this time around. Huge early vote there. Complete coverage of the debate on thursday. Im anchoring with our Political Team starting at 8 00 eastern. The president and joe biden are in a fierce battle for the swing states votes and in a Major Development overnight, the Supreme Court ruled mailin ballots in the battleground state of pennsylvania will be counted as long as theyre received within three days of the election. That decision denying a gop request to limit mailin voting. This comes as we see record numbers of people turning out to cast their ballots. Alex perez is in kenosha, wisconsin, where polls are opening for the first time this morning. Good morning, alex. Reporter hey, good morning, amy. Were here outside city hall in downtown kenosha and take a look behind me. People already lining up to cast their ballots. Now, voting is officially under way in all 50 states. From here in wisconsin to another battleground state, florida, where polls opened monday. Some voters there waiting hours to vote and across the country, early voting numbers are up more than 31 million have already voted. Thats more than five times the number at this point in 2016. Now, wisconsin is a battleground state that President Trump won by a very narrow margin in 2016. Hes trying to lock in support here holding a rally in janesville just this past weekend, but polls right now show biden with a slight lead in the state and the biden camp is outspending trump spending some 110 million on ads here in pennsylvania and michigan, dwarfing the trumps campaigns 31 million. Another big factor to consider here in wisconsin, the pandemic. Polls are opening for early voting as the state grapples with another huge surge in coronavirus cases. The state reporting some 3700 new cases just yesterday. But despite the pandemic, as you can see behind me here, amy, the state is bracing for record voting turnout here in wisconsin. Amy. Thanks for that, alex. Robin. As wisconsin faces that dangerous surge of covid cases, 16 states saw new records in just the last week and hospitalizations are now up in 41 states including texas. Our chief National Correspondent matt gutman is at a hospital in el paso. Good morning, matt. Reporter good morning, robin. Pretty much every metric weve been monitoring over the past seven months is headed in the wrong direction. Here in el paso, officials are calling the spread uncontrollable. One statistic stands out, a 500 increase in covid cases. This morning, that wave of Covid Patients is crashing over west texas hospitals. Is it fair to say that youre in the surge right now . Yes, we are in the surge and this is by far the highest number of patients that weve had since the pandemic began. Reporter inside the icu at the University Medical center in el paso, the work to save Covid Patients. Are you ready . Reporter el paso considered one of americas safest cities but its a ground zero for the virus. So in the last two weeks we have seen a very sharp increase in positive cases to about 500 increase. Reporter the citys mayor blaming young people. Weve had some real excessive number growth that we attribute to the ages 20 to 39. Over 52 as of last thursday. Reporter nationwide cases are rising an average of 15 each week and one in five u. S. Hospitals reporting more than 80 of their icu beds are filled. Thats higher than at any previous point during the pandemic. Mississippis governor reimposing mask mandates in nine counties after letting them lapse a few weeks ago. In kansas, ten patients dying in this nursing home after an outbreak spread to all 62 patients and staff members. And everywhere the human toll. Harrison johnson was a beloved pastor and funeral home director. On thursday he lost a fourmonthlong battle with covid dying of complications from the virus. I dont wish this on my worst enemy. Reporter at the very end johnson lost the ability to speak, but not the ability to communicate. He was mouthing that but he was saying i love you too, you know, and we were like, okay, were just waiting for that next morning. Reporter but for the big man with the even bigger smile, tomorrow never came. Nationwide Officials Say that the next few weeks are going to be critical and here in el paso, theyre begging people to be, quote, extremely careful and heres why, already 1 out of every 3 patients in hospitals in this area is there because of can videocomplications, they are already expanding their capacity here. Robin. We hope they will. Thanks so much. In the middle of the surge millions of americans are waiting for economic relief. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in talks with Steven Mnuchin and says the deal has to be struck by the end of today if theyre going to get a stimulus package before the election. Senior Congressional Correspondent mary bruce is tracking negotiations from washington. Good morning, mary. Reporter good morning, george. The white house and the hill are scrambling to reach this selfimposed deadline. The House Speaker and the treasury secretary spoke for nearly an hour yesterday. A deal by today is a very tall order. If they cant get it done, then relief likely will not come until 2021, and for millions of americans, that is simply just too long a wait. This morning, the clock is ticking for millions of americans financially devastated by the pandemic. Im afraid of being homeless. Im afraid of losing everything i have. Reporter for months white house negotiators and Top Democrats have been trying to hammer out an agreement on another round of relief aid and now house Speaker Nancy Pelosi says if they dont strike a deal today, it wont happen until after the election. From the start the president has never taken this seriously and neither has mitch mcconnell. Reporter both sides are still hundreds of millions of dollars apart. At odds over key provisions like funding for state and local governments and plans for a National Testing program. President trump adding confusion to the negotiations called off talked earlier this month only to restart them the very next day after facing backlash. Now hes telling republicans to, quote, go big, and blaming democrats for the holdup. Nancy pelosi at this moment does not want to do anything thats going to affect the election. Reporter but for many of the over 12 million americans who are unemployed, the bills are already past due. Over 30 million may be at risk of eviction by the end of the year and roughly one in ten in this country say they dont have enough to eat. Its a terrible time for everyone. I mean, theres not enough of anything anymore. Reporter most of the stimulus measures previously passed by Congress Like the Forgivable Loan Program for Small Businesses ended over the summer. Restaurant owners like chris doing everything they can to keep their doors open. I sold my motorcycle. I sold couches, chairs, bookshelves, mirrors, everything that was in my house, i have sold most of my personal possessions. Reporter now even if the they can reach a deal here, one big hurdle senate republicans, they want a smaller more targeted deal. They have all but ruled out the kind of proposal thats discussed here. The president , though, says he can get his party on board and get them to spend more but that is just not guaranteed. Amy. All right. Mary bruce, thank you for that. As families and businesses wait for that economic relief, a sign this morning that air travel is on the rise. The tsa screening the most passengers since the pandemic began on sunday as the cdc issues new guidelines about traveling with a mask. Gio benitez is at Laguardia Airport in new york with more on all this. Good morning, gio. Reporter hey, amy, good morning. Air travel really hit a new milestone this weekend, and this is especially encouraging for Airline Workers who are struggling so much. Take a look. The tsa reporting more than 1 Million People went through Airport Security checkpoints sunday, thats the First Time Since the start of the pandemic. Air travel is still down, about 60 compared to last year, but it is a huge jump from a low of just 87,000 people back in april. The tsa also says it screened more than 6 Million People over the last week. That is the highest weekly number since march, amy. And, gio, with more people traveling now were also hearing about that new guidance now from the cdc. Reporter yeah, thats right. The cdc is now joining airlines in strongly recommending masks on Public Transportation for all travelers two years and up and were talking about bus, trains and, of course, planes. Now, heres what the cdc is saying, transmission of the virus through travelers has led to and continues to lead to interstate and International Spread of the virus, which causes covid19. The cdc says masks will help protect americans and theyll give people the confidence to start traveling again and traveling again safely. Amy. Yes, wear your masks. Cant say it enough. Robin. We turn now to the world series and tonight game one of a showdown like no other. The l. A. Dodgers taking on the Tampa Bay Rays in a neutral site and that being texas. T. J. Holmes, bring it. Yes, you said it right, though, a team from california and a team from florida, must meet in texas for the world series. These are just weird times. Doing it down here, theyre doing kind of a bubble situation trying to cut down on spread but, yes, theyre doing it there. There will be fans, only about 11,000 let in, so thats only about a quarter capacity at that particular stadium, but the dodgers had to overcome a 31 deficit if their championship series to get here. Third time in four years theyve been here but havent won it. Some think theyre due but the rays had to overcome a small payroll. A small market team against the big dogs. Thats the matchup we have here. Tampa bay rays and their history only 20 something years old, the franchise, now going for their first world series ever. Whoever wins game one will be very happy. Get out that as my momma said when you strut you stumble and a player for the dodgers found out the hard way. I could have used that advice years ago but cody bellinger, you see him, one of the biggest moments of his life hit the go ahead home run. If we can rack it up again, he went and celebrated with his teammate and knocked his shoulder out of place. He dislocated his shoulder celebrating. Had to go down to the dugout. They popped it back in and he continued playing but it was one of the biggest moments of his life. It was worth celebrating but hit the goahead home run. That essentially put them in the world series. Hes expected to play. Hell be okay but knocked it out celebrating and popped it right back in. Lets play ball. Play ball. Thank you, t. J. We are following a lot of other headlines including breaking news, a controversial vaccine trial announced. Dr. Jha will join us live. New details of the mother rescued from Zion National park after going missing for nearly two weeks and what her family is saying about her condition and how she survived. All that ahead but lets go to ginger. Hey, robin, when we talk about raging winds making fires more erratic, this video really showcases it. This is from the cameron peak fire over the weekend. Just released where you can see those winds and whirls of fire around the firefighters. Thankfully for them, they have this thing now 51 contained because it did explode even more. 204,000 acres in colorado but see the luna fire, thats in new mexico. 9,000 acres burned and the National Carson forest. Now, we have a lot more to go when it comes to raging winds. Thats why we have red flag warnings and fire weather watches back from new mexico and colorado and wyoming, over into the bay area. This stuff starts tonight through thursday so well be wat