The american revolution, and were also right down the street from Independence Hall where, of course, they signed the declaration of independence and u. S. Constitution. More than 200 years ago. This year, pennsylvania once again is in the election spotlight. One of the handful of swing states that could be the key to determining our next president. After voting democrat for six straight elections, this state went republican in 2016 when trump flipped three counties from blue to red and ended up flipping the whole state. Heres how you know this state is so important. We saw President Trump, mike pence, joe biden and Kamala Harris all making Campaign Stops here within the last 24 hours. Polls are now open in pennsylvania and in a dozen states across the country. The numbers are already historic. Voter participation on track to be the highest in over a century. Roughly 97 million americans have already cast their ballots. Millions more are set to vote before the polls close tonight. You better make no mistake, todays turnout will be the deciding factor. Will it give biden the cushion he needs to rebuild the blue wall, beat the president and potentially expand the Democratic Base . Or will Trump Supporters overwhelm the advantage democrats built during early voting and deliver a comefrombehind win for President Trump again . Weve got reporters spread out across this nation covering all the big states and breaking down what matters to you. I want to go first to nbcs Peter Alexander following the Trump Campaign and ali vitali who has been following former vp biden. We heard from the president after midnight last night on fox and again this morning. What are his final words to voters . Get out there . For the president , this is the ball game as you set up nicely here. Hes counting on a huge turnout today to overwhelm that early vote that was largely democratic to give him another four years in office. And he is confident the energy hes seen in those crowds at his rallies rooy ies recently is eve polls will miss the mark again. Just a short time ago, the president sounding husky. His voice raspy after four rallies in five states yesterday. Was on fox news this morning and was asked whether or when specifically he would declare victory tonight. Take a listen. At what point will you declare victory . When theres victory, if theres victory. I think well have victory. I think the polls are, you know, suppression polls and i think well have victory. But only when theres victory. You know, theres no reason to play games. The president said there is no reason to play games. But he has been playing a game of sorts in the last several days. And again this morning, singling out pennsylvania, a state where they are going to be legally counting mailin ballots. As you know that arrive over the next three days. That was a decision upheld by the supreme court. The president again today saying that will cause chaos, saying its dangerous on the trail yesterday saying it amounts to cheating. Even tweeting out it would induce violence in the streets in a tweet that twitter ultimately flagged and said the information the president tweeted was disputed and may be misleading. Its worth noting pennsylvania secretary of state says the president knows that there is no fraud or cheating as a function of the way they carry out the process there. And one other point thats crucial. The president on the issue of the pandemic again reiterating this point, the false claim that were rounding the corner. He made those comments on the same day the Washington Post obtained an internal memo where dr. Deborah birx, the White House CoronavirusTask Force Coordinator shared with allies that we are now entering, in her words, the most deadly and most concerning phase of this pandemic. Contradicting the president s words and urging Top Administration officials to take much more aggressive action. Steph . Well, i will tell you, where i am at this polling station, people are in line six feet apart, and they are certainly masked up. Ali, what is the mood from team biden this morning . What are they telling you . Steph, sources that ive been talking to inside and close to the Biden Campaign have a vibe of cautious optimism this morning because they say they are just look at and interpreting the data. Democrats im talking to say its just about math at this point. They are looking at early voter turnout which they say seems to favor biden at this point but theyre also touting the fact that this campaign has several different paths to Electoral College victory, whether its through the midwest or other parts of the sun belt states. Theyre looking at that to say they feel pretty good heading into tonight. That doesnt mean they dont still need to turn out voters in detroit and philadelphia, but its not necessarily enough to assuage the spector of 2016 thats hung over this race the entire time. And while democrats are still skittish because of the 2016 of it all, this election is different. Its a president ial election happening amidst a pandemic. Higher early vote turnout than ever before. But also a question of what the coalition is going to look like if biden ultimately ends up winning. I was talking to a senior aide last night who was saying they dont necessarily think this coalition is going to look like the obama Biden Coalition of years past. Instead because theyre looking at the way that senior voters seem to be breaking towards democrats. Thats a bloc that typically trends more conservative. And so, of course, at the end of the day this election is a referendum on President Trump. Its been bidens message even before the pandemic began that this is a time to vote for leadership. Its the battle for the soul of the nation and biden has long been talking about the divisiveness that President Trump has brought into office with him and, frankly, that was his closing message last night, too. Listen to it. My girl, ali vitali, warming my heart talking math, math, math. Peter, ali, thank you so much. I want to look at all the key states and take you now to north miami, florida, where ellison barber is ot a polling station. Weve already seen early voting in florida nearly match the total vote from 2016. Are the numbers expected to be huge today . Hey, stephanie. Election officials in Miamidade County warned us a couple of days that they did not expect huge lines on election day because so many people have voted. Take a look at this. Some people getting ready to go inside. Were at a polling location in north miami. No lines in sight. We have been by this polling precinct a number of times, the last couple of weeks during early voting. And this place was packed all during early voting. Obviously, you can see today, not a huge line. People showing up coming in and out. A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that in Miamidade County, 64 of registered voters have already voted. Either early in person or absentee. Stephanie . Now lets head out to milwaukee where our colleague cal perry is standing by. Dont forget, wisconsin is a battleground state where joe biden appears to have an edge, but back in 2016, Hillary Clinton had an edge, too, and trump pulled out a win with just over 22,000 votes. Cal, how is it looking today . Yeah, so we have the morning rush here. Folks obviously who wanted to get out to work. A bit of a line early. Curbside voting going on. Local nonprofits trying to get in there and help people out. This was a 25,000vote difference as you said four years ago. So the Democratic Party vowed to take it more seriously. Joe biden has been here three times in his general election campaign. The dnc was supposed to happen here. Word of caution here in milwaukee. The numbers are so high and early votes are counted separately that Election Officials tell us we probably wont have results from wisconsin until 6 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning. Stephanie . Cal, thank you. As i mentioned, im here in philadelphia. I want to take you all the way across the state to western pa where my colleague Maura Barrett is. Youre in maybe the most interesting part of this state. When you look at the city of pittsburgh its likely to go to biden, but just outside, in Beaver County, where it is far more rural, coal country, those votes are likely to go in a different direction. Talk us through the economic divide where you are. Stephanie, pennsylvania is this very complicated state. Im just five hours away from you, but we might as well be worlds apart. Rural pennsylvanians in communities like these are ones that pushed back really hard against democratic governor tom wolfs restrictions around the pandemic when everything shut down back in the spring. Some of the first to go out and protest those businesses being closed and that sentiment still stands here as i talk to voters in line today. Theyre frustrated that they are seeing their communities struggling. Small businesses, restaurants, bars, closing, and they think that President Trump is the one that can bring the economy back. Its all about the economy. And whats more, here in Beaver County specifically, the largest construction project gh the state is just down the road. Theyre building a shell plant that ties directly to the president s message about fracking. People looking to bring jobs back to the community after seeing that dropoff after the steel and coal manufacturing plants went away. Depending on the president as he talks about bringing back fracking that they think he can get it done. Maura, thank you. I want to stay on pa. We know the president has repeatedly called out this state for allowing absentee ballots to be counted after election day. So lets bring in the state attorney general, josh shapiro. What are your big concerns for today, and what are you doing to prepare . Weve been preparing for months. And im not concerned at all. Weve got a plan. Were prepared to make sure that every legal, eligible vote is cast and counted. And were trying to just, frankly, ignore the noise and focus on protecting our democracy and making sure that all pennsylvanians who want to participate in this process can. And that the will of the people is ultimately reflected and respected at the end of the night. You have already been to course against the president s team multiple times in the past and won. Does it give you confidence you can handle whatever they might throw at you in the next few days . Oh, sure. Look. The president has spent months leading up to this election. He and his enablers suing us here in pennsylvania to make it harder for people to vote. To eliminate drop boxes. To have less time for people to vote. Have less time for the counting to occur. To disqualify certain ballots. To make it easier to truck socalled poll watchers in from out of county into certain communities across pennsylvania, particularly our black and brown communities to try and intimidate voters. Look, we have this president has taken us to court six times. Every single time hes gone to court, hes lost. Weve won. Weve protected peoples votes. And now as you are seeing from these lines from alquippa to philadelphia, they are lining up and making sure their voices are ord heard in our democracy. No matter what he says or tweets, these ballots will be counted and the will of the people respected here in pennsylvania. Well, to that very point, you tweeted over the weekend that when all the votes are added up, President Trump is going to lose. Does that undermine your message that you are going to count every vote and let the chips fall where they may when youre determining the outcome via twitter . Yeah, not at all. And im not determining any outcome. And ive said dozens of times that we are going to count all legal, eligible votes, and that the will of the people is going to be respected. If you go on and read that tweet, what i also made clear and what has been proven is that this president is working overtime to try and subtract votes from the equation. A candidate only does that when they know that, based on polling, just based on the political moment that were in, that they are running from behind. And the idea that we have a sitting president of the United States who is working to delegitimize our election, to stoke doubt in our process, and to literally go to court to try and eliminate eligible votes, thats the story here. Thats the challenge that we have been dealing with. The good news is for the people of pennsylvania, weve won every time in order to secure and protect their vote. They are clearly showing up to vote. We will count all those votes, and you need to know as the attorney general of pennsylvania, we will respect the will of the people no matter who they choose. Can i ask what the president and his teams rationale has been . Given that this state carried him last time, he flipped this state. Wouldnt he want every vote counted . Look, i cant get into the head of this president. Who the hell knows what hes thinking half the time. But what is clear from the record is theyve gone to court. And theyve alleged fraud. And couldnt prove it in court and cases were dismissed. Theyve gone to court and alleged all kinds of things that ultimately they were never able to prove and judges dismissed their cases. They have gone to court to try and silence the voices here in pennsylvania. And ive made clear that we are going to listen to the people of pennsylvania. Realistically, when do you think were going to get the results, and are you worried about any unrest in this city and state when we do . So thats two questions. Let me hit them both. I think by the Early Morning hours of wednesday, you will have the precinct totals, nearly 100 of them, if, you know, sort of history is what occurs here as well. In addition to that, youre going to have a very good sense of the mailin ballots, whats been counted and whats outstanding. And i think youll begin to get the picture. Certainly were ghnot going to have a full and complete count until later in the week. But the point here is that the law requires all ballots to be counted. And we are in the process of well be in the process of making sure that thats done and protecting that from any attacks that come. As it relates to violence, look, you know, there is a high cost to this president s rhetoric. His rhetoric hasnt given him any wins in court, and his rhetoric has been factchecked by you and others in the media time and time again who have found him to be lying. But his rhetoric about violence is really dangerous. He either, you know, directly gives aid and comfort to these hate groups that want to try and create disturbances in our communities or allows his words to be misappropriated by people who want to do harm to others in our community. The fact we have a sitting president of the United States doing that is really scary and dangerous. Now what i do see in pennsylvania, and i think what youre seeing in philadelphia today, is that the people seem to be tuning that out and drowning it out and showing up and voting and doing their job to participate in our democracy. Thats how it works. Drown out the noise. Show up and vote and your vote will be counted. Best way to drown out hate . Show up with love. Thank you for joining me. I know youve got a very busy day ahead. For you at home, what youre watching on the screen, not just me in philadelphia but former vp biden in scranton, pennsylvania. I mentioned it earlier. This state matters. And the last 24 hours, weve seen trump, pence, biden, Kamala Harris and again this morning, theres former vp biden in this state, scranton, pa, his old hometown. And you want to stay here all day long as voters are heading to the polls. Youll watch us throughout the day on our special coverage beginning tonight at 4 00 p. M. With Nicolle Wallace followed by chris hayes and then brian williams, rachel maddow, joy reid and Nicolle Wallace. Ill be chiming in with market results. The battle for the senate. Its not just about the president. At least ten republicans are in danger of losing their seats. What do democrats need to do to take back control . The one and only Steve Kornacki. Its his super bowl day. He joins us in just a few minutes. Plus, long voting lines and millions on edge. The reverend al sharpton and former secretary of Homeland Security, jeh johnson, join me to talk about the state of this country on this big day. But first, i want you to join me for a moment. There is so much happening right now on this election day. And its happening really fast. I know its bringing a huge amount of anxiety and uncertainty. I feel it. We all feel it. So i want you to join me. Just take this one moment together. Lets control the one thing we can control. Lets just take a deep breath together. Remember, we are at our best when we come together. Even just for one moment. Well be right back. upbeat music [narrator] this is kate. She always wanted her smile to shine. Now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. crowd cheering therabreath, its a better mouthwash. At walmart, target and other fine stores. Special guest flo challenges the hand models to show off the ease of comparing rates with progressives home quote explorer. International hand model jonjon gets personal. Your wayward pinky is grotesque. Then a high stakes pattycake Battle Royale ends in triumph. You have the upper hands its a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. Only on the upper hands. In california, were the only state where wealthy trust fund heirs get their own tax loophole. These tax cheats avoid millions in taxes on vacation homes and coastal mansions depriving our schools. 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