Theres a chance georgia will go blue for the First Time Since 1992, kristen. It would be remarkable, andrea, youre absolutely right. The Biden Campaign showing confidence heading into this final week and really going on offense. The fact that they are campaigning here in georgia which as you point out is a reliably red state. In terms of what we expect to hear from former Vice President joe biden, he will be laying out his Closing Argument today, andrea. Hes going to do it in warm spri springs, a place where former president roosevelt, fdr, went to heal from polio. Im told biden will use that as a backdrop to the argument that he will help the economy heal from the pandemic, from the economic crisis, and will also cast himself as a unifying candidate. Hell use that to contrast himself against President Trump. And then his second stop is going to be here in atlanta. Its going to be a drivein rally. Weve seen so many of those where of course people honk instead of cheer. This really underscores where the Biden Campaign feels it stands right now. The fact that they are trying to make inroads in these reliably red states. Vice President Biden will be in the battleground state of florida on thursday. Senator Kamala Harris will be in texas on friday, another red state. Democrats are feeling embolden. I spoke to one biden official who said, look, if we can peel off some of these states that trump won in 2016, that could make the difference if this is a tight race. But andrea, its a risky strategy, of course, because they need to hold on to the democratic strongholds as well. And so democrats are certainly energized by this strategy, but also hoping that it pays off, andrea. Indeed. And robert costa, who of course is also the host of Washington Week on pbs, talk to me about your white house sources are telling you about the president s strategy as hes crisscrossing through swing states and also making that side trip to nebraska to make sure that joe biden doesnt win that one electoral vote in the omahabased district. But also with covid, really the biggest issue, he still rid ridicules the pandemic and is going into hotspots and doesnt seem to recognize the seriousness of the disease. There is unease in the Republican Party and inside the white house about these outbreaks across key battlegrounds in the industrial midwest. You see spikes in wisconsin, spikes in iowa. This troubles the white house, whose whole plan for reelection is to make sure that the core trump voter who came out in 2016 is enthusiastic and comes out again in the industrial midwest. And so the president is trying to preserve his own base in pennsylvania. He keeps going back there to western and central pennsylvania. But at the same time, he has to now keep an eye on the sun belt and the deep south as the Biden Campaign tries to make inroads in states that have not turned blue for years. And phil rucker, the october surprise is really the pandemic. Thats right, andrea. The case counts are up. Hospitalizations are up in a number of states around the country. There is a fresh outbreak inside the white house, at least five members of Vice President pences team testing positive for the coronavirus. And it completely undercuts the argument that the president is trying to make in these closing days to voters, that the pandemic is nearly over, that the country is rounding the corner, as he puts it. Hes confronted at these rallies with reminders that the pandemic is not over. It remains a top issue for voters. Thats where President Biden, where Kristen Welker is today, is making a point with drivein rallies instead of the megarallies that trump is committed to doing between now and election day. And the president keeps ridiculing, and the Vice President is out on the trail instead of quarantining according to cdc guidelines, is remarkable, with five people on his staff testing positive, including very close aides. Garrett haake in florida, take us through what to expect and the early voting in key battleground states which youve been tracking. The president is such a key validater for former Vice President biden, you can see biden working side by side with him in the white house. I expect well hear from that from the former president. And hell cut into donald trump, hes done that at Previous Campaign stops on behalf of the biden ticket, giving these lacerating speeches, almost mocking President Trump, in a way that is cathartic for democrats and also gets under the president s skin. As for florida, look, florida is perennially a one percentage point state, always incredibly close. Were seeing gang busters early voting across the state. Were seeing democrats leading in terms of early ballots returned, early votes cast, around 42 of the votes that have come through here, the rest divided between republicans, 25 , and npa voters, no Party Affiliation voters, the folks everyone is competing over. What weve seen in florida over the last few election cycles are democrats building up big leads in early voting and then an election day wave from republicans taking away that advantage. The third and final thing well hear from former president obama today is to get people out and get those votes locked in early to try to build an even higher sea wall against the possibility of an election day republican wave, in a state that is always, just always incredibly close, andrea. Indeed. And lansing, michigan, of course is one of the states that the president really needs to win. He eked it out last time by some 10,000 votes. Our Shannon Pettypiece is there in lansing. Shannon, again, these big rallies, they really feed the president s ego but they also really counteract the argument that the medical experts are making about gathering, social gatherings. And theyre not socially distanced and they usually are not Wearing Masks except for the select people who are appearing behind the president. Right, and certainly thats the case right here behind me, andrea. There are some chairs set up, theyre all close together. I would say a few more people are Wearing Masks here than i saw at a rally in florida last week. But its still very sporadic. Michigan right now is seeing a very big surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Hospitals in this area right around me are nearing capacity. This is a state where some schools are open, some schools are not. People are really starting to feel the burden of this. Ill tell you, andrea, as i talk to voters who say theyre supporting the president , there is of course fear of the virus but there is also this big fear of the economy. Particularly in a place like michigan where the recession is still so remembered, there is a lot of fear of once again losing their homes and businesses. Thats driving voters. Thats of course where Governor Whitmer has been under fire and is getting a lot of support. Now were going to barack obama in orlando. Lets give a listen to some of his speech. I dont know if we have any Tampa Bay Rays fans in orlando. Big game tonight. Its do or die time. Now, the last time the rays were in the world series in 2008, florida sent me to the white house. The rays fell just a bit short then. But here in florida, democrats fell a little bit short in 2016 also. Over the next couple of weeks, florida, youve got the chance to fix two mistakes. Youve got the chance to set two things right. You can bring a world series championship to the Sunshine State and you can send joe biden and Kamala Harris to the white house. [ cheers and applause ] we got one week, orlando. One week. One week until the most important election of our lifetimes. And you dont have to wait until next tuesday to cast your ballot. Youve got two ways to vote right now. Number one, you can vote early in person right now. Number two, you can vote from home with a mailin ballot. Dont wait. Put it in the mail or drop it off at a dropbox location today. Dont take any chances, just get it done. Just go to iwillvote. Com to find out where you can early vote in person or drop off your ballot. If youve already voted, how many of you have already voted . If youve already voted, then your job is to help your friends and family make a plan to vote, because this election requires every single one of us. And what we do this week will matter for decades to come. Now, ive sat in the oval office with both of the men who are running for president. In case you couldnt tell, theyre very different people. I didnt think donald trump would embrace my vision or policies but i did hope for the countrys sake he might show some interest in taking the job seriously. But he didnt. He hasnt shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends or treating the presidency as anything more than a reality show that can give him the attention that he craves. And he does crave attention. This week, with everything thats happening, you know what he brought up . He was fussing about the crowd size at the inauguration again. Saying his was bigger. Who is thinking about that right now . Nobody except him. But the rest of us have had to live with the consequences. More than 225,000 people in this country are dead. More than 100,000 Small Businesses have closed. Half a million jobs are gone in florida alone. Think about that. And whats his Closing Argument . That people are too focused on covid. He said this at one of his rallies. Covid, covid, covid, hes complaining. Hes jealous of covids media coverage. If he had been focused on covid from the beginning, cases wouldnt be reaching new record highs across the country this week. If we were focused on covid now, the white house wouldnt be having its second outbreak in a month. The white house. Let me say this. I lived in the white house for a while. You know, its a controlled environment. You can take some preventive measures in the white house to avoid getting sick. Except this guy cant seem to do it. Hes turned the white house into a hot zone. Some of the places he holds rallies have seen new spikes right after he leaves town. And over the weekend, his chief of staff said, and im quoting here, im not making this up, his chief of staff, on a news program, says, were not going to control the pandemic. He just said this. Yes, he did. And yes, we noticed youre not going to control the pandemic. Listen, winter is coming. Theyre waving the white flag of surrender. Florida, we cant afford four more years of this. Thats why weve got to send joe biden to the white house. Because we cannot afford this kind of incompetence and disinterest. 12 years ago, when i chose a Vice President , i didnt know joe all that well. We served in the senate together. I notice, by the way, one of my great friends, bill nelson. I havent seen bill in a while, thats why. Plus hes wearing a mask. One of the great senators from florida. And joe and i served together with him. And, you know, i had a lot of friends in the senate, but joe and i wasnt the closest person. But he and i came from different places, we came from different generations. But i quickly came to admire joe as a man who learned early to treat everybody he meets with dignity and respect. And bill will testify to this, joe is somebody who lives by the words his parents taught him. No one is better than you, joe, but youre better than nobody. He believes everybody counts. He believes everybody is important. And that empathy, that decency, that belief in other people, thats who joe is. And thats who hell be. I can tell you, the presidency doesnt change who you are. It reveals who you are. And joe, time and time again, has shown himself to be a man of principle and character. And hes going to be a great president. [ cheers and applause ] for eight years, joe was the last one in the room whenever i faced a big decision. He made me a better president. And hes got the character and the experience to make us a better country. And he and Kamala Harris are going to be in the fight not for themselves but for every single one of us. Listen, you got a president right now, he wants full credit for an economy that he inherited. He wants zero blame for the pandemic he ignored. You know what, the job doesnt work that way. Youve got to be responsible 24 7. Youve got to Pay Attention 24 7. Tweeting at the tv doesnt fix things. Watching tv all day doesnt fix things. Making stuff up doesnt fix things. Youve got to have a plan if you want to make peoples lives better. Youve got to put in the work if you want to make peoples lives better. And along with the experience to get things done, joe biden has concrete plans and hes got concrete policies that will turn our vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into a reality. Look, heres the truth. The pandemic would have been challenging for any president. But this idea that somehow this white house has done anything but completely screw this thing up is nonsense. [ applause ] south korea had its first case of covid at the same time, the same week, as the United States. Do you know what their per capita death rate is just 1. 3 of what ours is . Think about that statistic. Ive given this statistic a couple of times and people havent really focused on it. The number of people in korea who have died of covid per capita is less than 1. 5 what our death rate is. Thats thousands and thousands of people, if we had been as effective and responsible, whose lives would have been saved in this country. Just across the border in canada, the death rate per capita is 39 what ours is here in the United States. We are the wealthiest, most powerful country on earth and we cannot smomehow get a grip on this because the government hasnt been doing its job. Last week, when our and last week, when trump was asked if he would do anything differently, you know what he said . He said, not much. Not much. Really . Not much . You cant think of anything that you might be doing differently, like maybe you shouldnt have gone on tv and suggested we might inject bleach to cure covid, thats not something where you said, maybe i shouldnt have said that . Not much . Think of how harmd the Tourism Industry has been hit right here in orlando, right here in florida. You lost one spring training season already. And he cant think of doing anything differently . Joe takes this seriously. He knows the emotional toll on grandparents when they cant see and hug their grandkids. Hes not going to screw up testing. Hes not going to call scientists idiots. Hes not going to host super spreader events at the white house and then take it on a tour all across the country. Joe will get this pandemic under control with a plan to make testing free and widely available. Hes going to get a vaccine to every american, costfree. And hes going to make sure our front line heroes never have to ask other countries for the equipment that they need to keep themselves safe. His plan will guarantee paid sick leave for workers and parents affected by the pandemic. Hell make sure that Small Businesses that hold our communities together and employ millions of americans can reopen safely. And he understands that were not going to rebuild the economy and put people back to work until we get this pandemic under control. Its not that complicated. Donald trump likes to claim he built this economy. But i just want to remind you that america created 1. 5 million more jobs in the last three years of the Obama Biden Administration than in the first three years of the trump pence administration. Thats a fact. Look it up. [ cheers and applause ] and that was before trump could blame the pandemic. He in fact inherited the longest streak of job growth in american history. But just like Everything Else he inherited, he screwed it up. And the economic damage that he inflicted by botching the Pandemic Response means he will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to actually lose jobs. The first president since Herbert Hoover back in the 30s. Thats a long time, people. Thats almost 100 years ago. He loves to talk about black unemployment, look how low black unemployment well, you know what, unemployment was really high when i came in and we brought that unemployment low and it kept on going low. And he wants to take credit for it, says hes the best president for black folks since abe lincoln. Man. Now his advisers are out there saying, including his soninlaw, his soninlaw says, black folks have to want to be successful, thats the problem. Who are these folks . What history books do they read . Who do they talk to . Dont read, is that whats going on . Black unemployment hit almost 17 during the great recession, ten years ago. And through a lot of hard work, joe biden and i helped get it down. And it kept on going down. Not because trump did anything. And then this year, because theyve screwed up the Pandemic Response, its soared back up to above 17 here in florida. But it doesnt have to be that way, florida, if you go out and vote. [ cheers and applause ] yes, we can. Listen, the only people truly better off than they were four years ago are the billionaires that got trumps tax cuts. In the meantime, he has not been able to manage extending relief to millions of families who cant pay the rent right now. Cant put food on the table right now. Got no plan to reopen schools that need reopening. Or protecting teachers in the process. You know, i dont understand how it is that he cannot organize republicans in congress to do the right thing. And its not like its his money that were asking to pay, cause he doesnt pay taxes. Barely pays income taxes. We know hes g