Park avenue is wall street all he thinks about is the stock market telling them, were going to do all right. Everybody own stock. How many of you all own stock . My neighborhood in scranton, not a whole lot of people own stock. Joe biden woke up to good news in the polls today from the New York Times siena poll out this morning he has a ninepoint advantage in arizona. A 17point advantage in maine and a 1point lead in North Carolina trump has effectively instructed his supporters to commit felly voter fraud by voting twice. In the swing states, mr. Trump is still lagging across the board. The times polled seven president ial battlegrounds in the last two weeks, and the president has not led in any of them in no state did he amass more than 44 of the vote though he has repeatedly tried to shift the folk aurks way from the virus, he has not established a meaningful advantage over mr. Biden on any issue of equal urgency a grim political reality for the president on the first day of early voting in four u. S. States, including virginia where were already seeing voters lining up at the polls to cast their ballots well ahead of election day joe biden has in the weeks since the convention blunted all of trumps efforts to get on offense in the polls at this point that bear this out first by turning trumps law and order message against him. Second, by turning trumps covid failures into messages that seem to be connecting with voters around the failure to contain the virus in time for kids to go back to school safely, or for businesses to reopen confidently. But most interesting perhaps is bidens new effort at turning trumps attempt to paint him as a hostage at the liberal elite around on trump. Were used to guys who look down their nose at us. Or looked at people who look at us and think were sucksuckers thing were not equivalent to them if you didnt have a college degree, you must be stupid if you didnt get to go to an ivy school i tell you what bothered me to tell you the truth maybe its my scranton roots, i dont know but when you guys started talking on television about biden if he wins, will be the first person without an Ivy League Degree to be elected president. Who the hell makes you think i have to have an ivy league to be president. I mean it. I found my backup. No, im not joking im not joking guys like me, the first in my family to go to college up here my dad busted his neck we are as good as anybody else and guys like trump who inherited everything and squandered what they inherited are the people that ive always had a problem with not the people who are busting their neck donald trump and his family and his allies and his friends in the media have run against the liberal elites overtly and subliminally for years and if joe biden is able to strip trump of this appeal to voters who side with him because they think he annoys the elites, it would represent a significant advantage for joe biden. For his part, donald trump threw more gas into the culture wars by announcing hed launch a patriotic curriculum in schools. Its really an effort to fight against antiracist education. Bidens mo and trumps attempts to hang on are where we start today with John Heilemann, plus former democratic senator Claire Mccaskill is back and the rev al sharpt orngs ho sharpton, host of politics nation and president of the National Action network. We follow the outrageous things jump has said when they find their way to the atlantic and Bob Woodwards book because they deserve attention but there are less flashy structural things going on, and i think this move on joe bidens part to say im not the elite. Youre the elite mr. Gold plated toilet bowl living on park avenue is fascinating. Winner winner Chicken Dinner for joe biden. What he did last night, by firmly facing his really working class roots in a working class town, a nonivy League Education and talking about donald trump who, think about this, who buys a gold toilet . Who needs a gold toilet . Who needs mirrors . Donald trump. Gold fixtures i mean gold fixtures on his private jet. You know, who does that . I mean, it is someone who is all in to the elite trappings, who brags about where he went to college and who lives on park avenue in a fancy schmancy place. That isnt joe biden, and joe biden needs to talk about that because most voters relate to who joe biden is, not donald trump. So this is, i think, a really smart pivot, especially at this moment of the campaign you know, John Heilemann, its so smart, i wonder what took him so long yeah, right i mean i think its look, theres a lot of things to say about this, but one of them, to come back to a topic you and i have discussed hi happy friday how are you doing . Hi. Happy friday she surprised me with that short you surprised me with that short question. I was waiting for a i was waiting for a soliloquy or something. No, no. I wanted to hear you weve been talking about two things for a long time, you and me on this show. One of them is the strength biden has in the category of cares about people like us, right . And that thats not just an empathy thing. Thats a class thing thats a whole bunch of things but its a powerful thing in a president ial election. The other thing weve talked about is trump has maintained this stubborn advantage on the economy which is also a powerful thing. Its one of the things that wins elections and traditionally democrats win when they win on the economy and when they dont have an advantage on the economy, they dont win. I see this move as the way to try to another attempt to try to solve that second thing which is a problem for the Biden Campaign by leveraging the first thing, right this is a way of trying to turn populist working class empathy into an advantage on economics, right . They still are trying to they know if they can win this economic argument, the race is pretty much over because he leads on every other metric, right . So whats the right way for joe biden to get into that if trumps advantage on the economy is strength in some way and a false kind of a pointing to its unrelatable if you think about it he points to the stock market. The stock market is doing great. Biden is saying, wait a second most people dont own stock. And so hes using that kind of his biography and his working class credentials to remind people that trumps strength on the economy is like Everything Else with trump its paper thin. And i think that driving through his biography and his connection to the people of scranton and people like the people in scranton might be the right pathway to try to get at this last bastion of trumps strength in the categories that will determine the election you know, i was half joking, rev, when i said its so smart what took him so long . But heilemann makes the important political point, of course, that structurally, the only Thing Holding donald trump up, and some of these states he is still very much in striking distance this race is far from over donald trump four years ago benefited from a hidden trump voter. Who knows what that number is this time around, his conduct is so reprehensible im sure that dynamic exists today. Although our colleague Garrett Haake talked about a hidden biden vote this time around. But this idea that if joe biden can come in and get behind the economic anxiety people feel because of the instability that the pandemic has created and the failure on trumps part to contain it and sort of top that off with, you know, im not the elite. Hes the elite look how he lives, what he cares about. Hes talking about the stock market, not your bottom line or businesses on main street. It really would be a political accomplishment these final 45, 46 days. The effectiveness of it is to really say that he is not what he claims to be and that i am. And you must remember the real smart part about this that i feel is donald trump ran on he rose in politics on birtherism that barack obama was not one of us it was racial undertones but also the culture war hes not one of us what joe biden started today is saying to a lot of working class americans, even some in the suburbs who worked their way out there, donald trump is not one of us. Hes an elitist. He lives in a world that we cant live he doesnt feel what we feel he doesnt know what we know he is an elitist hes an Ivy League Guy that lives on fifth avenue. Even when he talked about shooting someone, it was on fifth avenue, and if he is able to rob from him the weapon that hes used that i am yall and that obama is not one of us or hillary is not one of us, now joe biden has turned that on his head and says, look at him hes not one of us and the more voters in the midwest and in the middle class, working class, White America look at donald trump theyll say, hes right. Hes not one of us we dont have all of those doodads and all of this glitzy life and i think that that can be a very Effective Campaign and it could end up with him covering a lot of ground that he now is real tight in and could really elevate his poll numbers and elevate people at the polls. And claire, the best political attacks have the benefit of being true. They are empirically true and the truth is joe biden was not the democratic sort of selection of the liberal elites. They were much more jazzed about Elizabeth Warren and even Bernie Sanders and cory booker. He was about eighth or ninth on the list you and i sat together i remember when the nevada caucuses were under way and there were all sorts of people messaging both of us you more than me sort of writing joe bidens political eulogy so his base of support really is it started in South Carolina and his base is much more grassroots. This message might work because it is true yeah, and thats one of the things i think people need to realize in todays modern politics theres two things you have to do when you poll something you have to poll the issue and then if its an attack you have to say do you believe this attack because the problem trump has now, he has built this campaign on saying that joe biden is somehow incompetent and incapable of physically or mentally handling the job. And every day, like last night, joe biden showed america that trump is not telling the truth that, of course he can handle this job of course he can answer questions. In fact, if you put the two tapes up, the one who looks like he cant handle anything is the guy who is thinking theres a herd mentality you know, so it is really its really interesting to me that you have to have an attack that is believable and trump hasnt come up with one on joe biden yet let me do that, claire. Let me play the two tapes. It is going to disappear. Its going to disappear. It would go away without the vaccine, george. But its going to go away a lot faster youll develop like a herd mentality. Its going to be herd developed and thats going to happen that will all happen all the way back and i was on one of your shows. All the way back in march i was calling for the need for us to have masks, have the president stand and tell us whats going on but he knew it he knew it and did nothing thats close to criminal his own cdc director contradicted him recently. He said if, in fact, you just wore this mask, nothing else but this mask, you would save between now and january another 100,000 lives. And so we have to be honest with the American People. Theyre tough. You know, claire, the problem with running out and saying man, camera, tamale all the time is you lay out this narrative that joe biden cant say man, woman, tamale joe biden can memorize five words and can be briefed hes come out the last few days after briefing with scientists and understands the manufacturing and developing a vaccine that will protect us but of distributing it across the World Population donald trump who is locked in a warp of words right now with his own cdc director cannot understand the Science Behind first developing a vaccine and then rolling it out. And i bet my last dollar more than a few people have tried to explain it to him. No question about it. And you have to chuckle at some of the social media stuff last night where people were saying, well, someone must have given him the topics he was prepared for the topics you would expect running for president of the United States he was prepared on Climate Change he was prepared on the economy he was prepared on health care he was prepared on covid the people who support trump are so unaccustomed to trump having any idea what hes talking about that they think theres a fix in when the president is fully prepared on the subjects he needs to understand, trust experts and lead on at this time thats an interesting point, John Heilemann you and i spent so much time talking about the structural underpinnings of this race and on empathy, it was never going to be a contest. But i wonder if when you see donald trump not even capable of listening to a woman who is in tears talking about how her mothers cancer metastasized before she could come to the town hall and ask her question and he starts blatherring about covid. I wonder if he turns the competence issue he raised back on himself watch this what was happening to trump . Mr. Vice president , this is sheila, a registered nurse from scranton a republican who voted for trump in 2016. Shes also the widow of a Police Officer who lost his life last year to cancer caused by toxins at the site of the World Trade Center im very sorry for your loss and very happy youre here if there are any angels in heaven, theyre all nurses docs let you live. Nurses make you want to live male and female, so thank you for what you do. She had Breast Cancer but it metastasized on her brain, bones and lungs. One of her biggest goals was to become a citizen, and she did. Days before she died and i she needed to push me to do it that just shows how vicious the covid is especially when you have another problem you have another type of a problem. Did you have covid you didnt have it, right . Your mother. Well, have it taken care of. Its going to get taken care of. So John Heilemann, obviously, there was a more sound from joe biden there, too, making the contrast even more starkly, but the ability the inability on trumps part to listen seems to make worse his inability to empathize. Right and i well, i also think about what claire was saying, she was talking about preparation. What i found super interesting about that town hall with George Stephanopoulos was it put trump in an unusual and uncomfortable position which is to say he had to perform as a candidate in front of a nonmaga crowd. It was like a town hall meeting with undecided voters. Thats stuff donald trump doesnt do very much anymore basically, obviously, the covid thing has meant no one is performing in public all that much but trumps whole 3 1 2 years has been dominated by a particular kind of performance style which he enjoys and which he feeds off of and which energizes him, which is the rally. Going in front of the hard core, the base, the die hards who love him and shower him with affection and he loves to get up and do his thing we think he looks like fat elvis, but he gets off on it, they get off on it but this was an unusual thing for him to be in a normal president ial campaign setting, which is, you know and i think it showed how weak he is in that and how uncomfortable and unfamiliar he now finds himself in that kind of a setting. And i raise this for me. The kind of profound question of, whats going to happen in these three debates because these three debates, joe biden went through a lot of debates in the democratic nomination fight. He did well in some. Did poorly in others but he did a lot of them he did a lot of them and recently and you know having work forward george w. Bush that generally, incumbent president s who have been off the campaign trail, out of debates for four years, they usual lly get their clock cleand in the first debate by the challenger yet this race, because trump is behind is sort of hes betting it all on the notion hes going to be able to knock joe biden down a peg in that debate and theres nothing about trumps performance at that town hall that suggests hes going to be a strong performer on the debate stage in a debate that matters to him more than anything in the world between now and election day all right lets listen to joe biden here from covid to unemployment to a country that is divided along these is being divided along race lines we have institutional racism were dealing with a whole range of things. And the people of minnesota know that they have two of the best senators in the country on their side and, matt, thank you so much for that introduction and for showing me around today. This incredible Apprentice Program here at the Carpenters Training center. What a lot of people dont know if theyre not involved with labor is Apprenticeship Program is not only training the best workers in the world im not being facetious. Thats a fact. But they get paid while theyre doing it they are getting paid while not full wage but theyre getting paid while doing it. And thats why these union Apprenticeship Programs are so, so critically important. They stay this way it matters people who still make it while theyre learning a trade a trade thats going to put them in good stead the rest of their lives. It was great to see some of the practical handson experience that apprentices and journeymen and women here receive and while, as i said, earning a wage as a benefit. You know, its a bit quieter here because than usual because of covid19 restrictions but the pride of these workers who are learning the skills that will carry them throughout their careers is still unmistakable. My father, and i apologize for the press that follows me for repeating this, but my dad used to have an expression. Hed say, joey, your job is about a lot more than a paycheck its about your