I just want to make sure we can earn every vote possible. The president ial race enters its final week, just seven days to go. President trump and joe biden making a big push in battlegrounds that will determine the outcome. Well break down the very latest numbers from those key states. Breaking overnight, outrage. Violent protests erupt in philadelphia, after the deadly shooting of a knifewielding black man. At least 30 officers hurt, dozens of demonstrators taken into custody. Well have the latest in a live report. Alarming trend. No matter how you look at it, its not good news. The u. S. Now averaging more than 70,000 new coronavirus cases per day. Hospitalizations up 40 . And the Ripple Effect now being felt on wall street. Wild weather. New wildfires in california forcing tens of thousands to evacuate. An ice storm in the plains bringing widespread power outages, while hurricane watches are once again posting along the gulf coast as zeta targets the region. Al is covering it all. All that, plus its jimmy time. Our good buddy jimmy fallon makes the trip from his tonight show studio to join us live in studio 1a and we cant wait for the company. Today, tuesday, october 27th, 2020. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb. From studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Hey, everybody. Welcome to today. So happy youre joining us on this very busy Tuesday Morning. You know who else is joining us . Jimmy fallon. Were going to have an actual instudio guest. We dont know how to behave around other people. We cant wait to see him. We do have a lot happening today. Weve reached the official oneweek countdown to the election. The president is going to be holding rallies in wisconsin, nebraska. Joe biden visiting georgia, a historically red state. Lets get started with the major victory for the president when it comes to the Supreme Court. Amy Coney Barrett sworn in as the Newest Supreme Court justice during a ceremony at the white house a short time after a divided senate vote to confirm her nomination. Thats where we start with nbcs Peter Alexander. Hes got the latest. Good morning. Reporter good morning. The final senate vote 5248, confirming amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The third conservative justice put on the bench by President Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts will make it official today, administering the judicial oath in a private ceremony. Her impact could be felt immediately. From judge to Justice Barrett. I, amy Coney Barrett reporter exactly one month after being nominated by President Trump, amy Coney Barrett now joins the nations highest court, concluding one of the quickest and most controversial Supreme Court nominations in modern american history. I love the constitution and the democratic public that it establishes, and i will devote myself to preserving it. Reporter the ceremonial swearing in monday night at the white house with Justice Clarence thomas doing the honors. So help me god. So help me god. Reporter President Trump one week until the election looking to capitalize on the victory that cements the courts 63 conservative majority. It is highly fitting that Justice Barrett fills the seat of a true pioneer for women, Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg. Reporter at least 14 attendees later tested positive for coronavirus, and monday night a dramatically different scene on the south lawn. Guests socially distanced with the white house requiring everyone there wear a mask. The late evening event punctuating the most partisan confirmation in more than 150 years. All but one senate republican, susan collins, voting in favor of barrett. Every democrat voting against her, four years after Senate Republicans blocked president obama from filling the court vacancy. What this administration and this Republican Senate has done is exercise the power that was given to us by the american people. You may win this vote, but you will never, never get your credibility back. Reporter barretts addition to the court could impact decisions on abortion rights and health care, with democrats concerned she could be the decisive vote invalidating the Affordable Care act. Barrett will be seated in cases that could help determine the outcome of the election. Reporter on the topic of election related cases, just before the Senate Confirmed barrett last night, the Supreme Court ruled that the state of wisconsin is dealing with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country, cannot count mailin ballots that arrive after election day. That is viewed as a blow to democrats who wanted ballots counted up to six days after, as long as they were postmarked by election day. Peter, thank you. Lets zoom in more on the president ial race and where things stand with seven days to go. The president and joe biden are crisscrossing the country to make closing arguments to voters. The president also raising some eyebrows with an election day message to democratic governors. Nbcs Kristen Welker in atlanta for us. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. In this home stretch, vice President Joe Biden is projecting new confidence, campaigning in the traditional republican stronghold of georgia where polls show he is running neck and neck with president donald trump. Its the latest twist in this unprecedented campaign, dominated by the pandemic. With one week until election day, and coronavirus cases surging in more than 40 states, President Trump in battleground pennsylvania, again insisting the country will soon turn the corner on the crisis. Were rounding the turn. Normal life, thats what we want. Normal life. Reporter but thats not the case at the white house, where five associates of Vice President mike pence, including his chief of staff, have tested positive for covid19. Pence campaigning in minnesota after testing negative monday, despite his exposure, the Vice President s office is pointing to cdc guidelines, arguing he is an essential worker. Joe biden also in pennsylvania, making the virus central to his case for the white house. Donald trump is the worst possible president , the worst possible person to try to lead us through this pandemic. Reporter that message echoed by his running mate, kamala harris, on the reviview. We have witnessed the greatest failure in our country. The former Vice President also taking new aim at the president s chief of staff for these comments. Were not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics. Reporter biden arguing thats an acknowledgment of defeat. Ive been saying for months, as you well know, that he waved the white flag. The white house was coming out now and admitting what i said months ago was absolutely true. Reporter the president firing back at biden monday, prompting a bitter back and forth. Hes waved a white flag on life. He doesnt leave his basement. Reporter meantime, the president himself was flagged overnight by twitter after he tweeted about what he called big problems with mailin ballots, saying must have final total on november 3rd, the social Media Company calling the president s post disputed and potentially misleading and included a link highlighting that mailin voting the safe, legal and theres no evidence of widespread fraud. All of it coming after the president said this about democratic governors and voting in pennsylvania on monday. Were watching you, governor, very closely in philadelphia. Were watching you. A lot of bad things. A lot of bad things happen there with the counting of the votes. All we can say is Law Enforcement is watching nevada. North carolina has got it shut down. Were watching North Carolina. Were watching michigan. Reporter so, savannah, there could be two parts to the strategy. On with ton hand, President Trump taking aim at these democratic governors as a way to sow doubt in the entire process, which polls show him trailing joe biden. He could also be trying to energize his base. But the question is, how is that going to play with the voters who e elected these democratic governors, and how is it going to play with independent voters, as well as those critical suburban women. That remains to be seen. For his part, Vice President biden will be campaigning in georgia, as i said. Hell be rolling out his closing argument. Its a state democrats havent won since 1992, savannah. All right, Kristen Welker, thank you very much. Coming up, craig is here with more of our decision 2020 coverage. Good morning, good morning to you as well. Like all president ial elections, this contest will also be won or lost in the battlegrounds. This morning we want to take a closer look at how voters are feeling in those seven states. States that could very well determine the outcome. We were just in georgia. Garrett haake joins us from florida. Good morning. Reporter craig, good morning. Donald trump and joe biden have run very different races these last couple of weeks. The president holding his mega rallies, joe biden doing smaller, more covidsafe events. With just seven days to go they are focused on largely the same handful of swing states that could decide this, starting right here in florida. With 29 electoral votes at stake, there is no bigger battleground than florida, the state President Trump now calls home. I voted for a guy named trump. Reporter and where he cast his own ballot last weekend, more than 5. 6 floridians have already voted early. Joe biden returns to the Sunshine State on friday. His lead in the average of polls here, just 1. 8, nearly the same margin President Trump won the state by in 2016. Motor city, usa. Reporter biden holds a stronger polling lead in each of the pivotal midwestern states once called the democrats blue wall. Biden leads in wisconsin, and pennsylvania. Donald trump won the states by less than a point each in 2016. The blue wall has to be reestablished. Reporter no state has seen more candidate visits than pennsylvania. Biden has been to the keystone state 11 times since his convention. Trump campaigning about eight times in that same period, including three rallies on monday alone. Pennsylvania gets it. By the way, we win pennsylvania, we win the whole thing. Youve got to get out there. Reporter three of the closest races in the country are in traditionally republican southern and western states where democrats are on offense. Biden leads by an average of 2. 4 points in arizona and by just 1. 2 points in North Carolina. Vice president mike pence travels there today to defend the state his ticket won by nearly 4 points in 2016. Georgia, where biden campaigns today, is the only battleground state where President Trump leads and there by less than a point. No democratic president ial nominee has won georgia since 1992. And there are relatively few voters left to convince. Early votes cast so far in georgia and North Carolina account for twothirds of the votes cast there in all of the 2016 election. And if you just want to know what state is going to keep us up late on election night, keep an eye on pennsylvania. They cant start processing, let alone counting all the absentee ballots until election day itself and they can still refuse absentee ballots up to a few days after election day. In pennsylvania, we might be looking at an election week, craig. Oh, okay. Garrett haake for us in florida. Thank you. Thank you. We have a lot more to get to, including breaking news overnight out of california. New wildfires have exploded, fanned by high winds and this morning theyre forcing new evacuations. Nbcs Miguel Almaguer joins us did details. Reporter the situation is fluid in southern california. I want to show you the scene behind me. Firefighters are still in this local community trying to protect homes after the wildfire exploded, fuelled by those massive winds over the last 24 hours. Later on today were expecting those winds to continue to stay at dangerously high speeds as firefighters do their very best to hold their ground. Overnight the dreaded santa ana winds kicked up again with renewed force. Flames fuelled by cold desert air, racing across dry hill sides, putting First Responders at deadly risks. Two young firefighters critically injured in the blaze. One has 65 burns, both second and third degree. The second has 50 , both second and third degree burns. Both are intubated at this time. Reporter in the mountains outside l. A. , wind speeds hit 96 Miles Per Hour, the same intensity as a category 2 hurricane. This is really, really bad here. And i dont know how much longer i can do this. You get these singledigit humidities and winds like were experiencing, fires are going to move quickly. Orange county fire authority. Reporter traffic clogging escape routes, with more than 90,000 people in irvine alone under evacuation orders, some with little to no warning. I just have what i have in my car, which is not much. Reporter heavy smoke caused the faa to evacuate the control tower at John Wayne Airport and delay flights. Reporter its not necessarily the power and scope of these wildfires thats the most dangerous element out here. Its clearly the wind thats driving that. In Northern California where so much has already burned, power was cut off to around 1 Million People in hopes of preventing more devastation. From the winds in the bay area to santa ana in the southland, california is ones again under siege. Officials are still trying to determine the cause of this fire but they do say a local Power Company may have had some downed power lines and that may have been the cause for the blaze. Meantime, over the next 12 to 24 hours, we are expecting the wind speeds to decrease a bit. Thats giving firefighters exactly what they need over the next day. Guys, back to you. Miguel, thank you. Now to the latest on the coronavirus. Concern over an uptick in cases has the stock market on edge. Hospitalizations in the u. S. Are up 40 just in the last month and the crisis is especially dire in the upper midwest right now. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez joins us from minneapolis this morning. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Minnesotas governor is warning that the state is reaching a critical point, hospitalizations here are up 70 over the last month. Across the country, the rise in cases caused a steep drop on wall street. This morning, from minnesota to massachusetts, california to texas, the pandemic is hitting new milestones. Were tired, you know, were sick of covid19. We really are. Theres no end in sight. Reporter the u. S. Has averaged more than 70,000 cases a day for the past week and negotiations for another stimulus package have stalled, renewing fears on wall street. The dow dropping 650 points on monday, its worst day since early september. Winter is now here and we dont foresee the cases slowing down any time soon, unless people change their behaviors. Reporter covid cases in at least 44 states are up 10 or more in the last two weeks. No matter how you look at it, its not good news. Reporter about 41,000 people are now hospitalized, a 40 jump in the last month. We have lost a few people and its been hard, because we have cared for them for so long. Reporter among the biggest stie spikes right now is in new mexico. We tend to be seeing a surge of cases that represent the younger age population. Reporter doctors say thats not any kind of relief because those younger patients could end up spreading the virus to older, more vulnerable people. In el paso, texas, where hospitals are full and a nightly curfew is now in effect, this man is battling the virus and is struggling to breathe. I do worry because there are no beds right now. Reporter here in minnesota, hospitals like this one are busier and Public Health officials are warning people to try and limit community spread. Since june, there have been about 70 wedding related outbreaks here in the state. Savannah. Thank you. Coming up in the next half hour, were going to have an inside look at the second wave of covid cases now sweeping through italy. Overnight, new restrictions to control the spread have been met by a fierce pushback. Bill neely is going to join us in just a few moments. Meantime, its a busy day in the weather department. Al is tracking a hurricane, Winter Weather, fires out west. Youve got a lot on your plate. We do. Right now, though, its down to a Tropical Storm because it came over the yucatan peninsula, but that has not stopped the National Hurricane center from issuing hurricane warnings, watches, and Tropical Storm warnings stretching into the panhandle of florida. Here is the latest. Its 85 miles east, southeast of mexico, 70 mile per hour winds. Its moving northwest at 14 Miles Per Hour. Already today y