Increasingly important. Well have more on the state of play in just a moment. We now have that breaking news from the Biden Campaign. Lets go directly to nbcs mike memoli who is following it all for us. Mike, theres been a lot of talk over the course of the last couple weeks about whether or not joe biden, Kamala Harris might hit the road. What are you learning . Reporter yeah, chris. Just in the last few minutes, as you mentioned, weve been following the potential of a potential joe biden trip to the state of wisconsin, to kenosha following President Trumps visit yesterday. Just getting released from the Biden Campaign hell hold a Community Meeting tomorrow in kenosha and also to focus on bringing together americans to heal and address the challenges we face. Whats interesting about this, chris, just yesterday, a top Campaign Adviser said they were planning to go very soon. But Hallie Jackson spoke with the local president of the naacp who said he didnt want to see any of the candidates here, that the city was very much at a sensitive moment and it was potentially disruptive. The Biden Campaign, i understand, has been in touch with local officials, potentially including the head of the naacp there. This comes, of course, as you say joe biden attempting to address head on what the Trump Campaign has tried to make this election about, about law and order. Biden using that speech in another battleground state on monday in pittsburgh to talk about what he says is the failure of President Trump to bring the country together, to, in fact, exacerbate these issues were facing, the violence in the streets and to say very clearly in his own words that violence has no place in this, that it does not accomplish change, strongly denouncing that. Biden today will be speaking in the next hour behind me at a theater here in his hometown of wilmington on what he has tried to make his campaign focus on, the president s handling of the coronavirus, planning to address an issue a lot of americans are facing, when and how to send kids safely back toless skoo. This trip tomorrow will be a critical moment for the Biden Campaign, something we havent seen, by the way, very often, him leaving these very few battleground states. Only pennsylvania is where hes been these last few months and heading to wisconsin to address this head on. Speaking of pennsylvania, mike, well do a deep dive on the whole series of polls were getting today a little later. Just released minutes ago, monmouth is showing a tightening race in pennsylvania. One of the most interesting findings of it, a small but important part of the electorate agrees that the suburbs are under threat which, of course, is the president s messaging. Theres a new ad out from the Biden Campaign addressing that. I want to play a little bit of it. His fail your to not call on his armed supporters to shows how weak he s. Violence will not bring change and only bring destruction. Its wrong in every way. If i were president , my language would be less divisive. Id be looking to lower the temperature in this country, not raise it. Donald trump is intent on building fear in america. Donald trump adds fuel to every fire. Were seeing this public polling that suggests again, in a small but important part of the electorate, the message of the president seems to be resona resonating. Is that ad an acknowledgment of that . How worried is the campaign about this law and order message that the president has been putting out there . Reporter chris, there are certainly two ways of looking at this new television ad. A significant amount of money behind it, 45 million just this week on the airwaves, online as well. Their biggest single spend in terms of advertising of this campaign. One is to say that what the Biden Campaign was telling me earlier this week, listen, the president wants to make this about law and order. They are happy to have that debate. The former Vice President willing to take that on and flip the script and redefine what it means to be safe in america, and this ad being an effort to continue to press that case. The way the Trump Campaign sees it and a lot of others, trump allies are looking at it as a sign that, yes, the president s strategy here is working. The widen campaign is on the defensive. I think thats what raises the stakes for the former Vice President s trip to wisconsin tomorrow. Obviously the president went yesterday. He did not meet with the family of jacob blake. Instead focusing on the violence that occurred there, the efforts that were made, as he said, to end the problem. Obviously still an ongoing crisis. Biden has tried to emphasize the contrast between him and President Trump, their styles of leadership, to model his own form of president ial leadership. That i think is a taste of whats to come tomorrow to try to embrace that contrast and try to put this issue back safely in their corner, chris. Mike memoli, thank you. Again, that breaking news that jill and joe biden will be going to kenosha. Let me bring in Nbcs Kelly Odonnell who is covering the white house and the president s trip to North Carolina. Second day in a row the president is heading to a key battleground state. To pick up on what mike was just saying, you couldnt get two more divergent views of where we are in this country in terms of law and order. Should we expect or what should we expect to hear from the president . Will it be today like we heard when he was in kenosha yesterday, do you expect . Reporter i think it will be a little different because North Carolina has a different story to tell. I think President Trump will likely react to the news just brought to us about the bidens planning to go to kenosha, with the president highlighting that he was already there, already on the ground, spoke with people who have lost their businesses or are concerned about their safety. And as mike pointed out, did not talk to the family of jacob blake. The president was asked about those issues. Ill explain that in a moment. Today in North Carolina, part of what the president will do in battleground North Carolina which is one of the critical states where hes been a number of times, mike pence will also be there this week. Well get a bit of the incumbent vibe. Expect several hundred people at the airport to greet the president and the president being able to utilize the powers of his office to declare wilmington, North Carolina, a heritage city, marking 75 years since world war ii. That is one of the things that the incumbent can do using the powers of the office to do something thats positive for a community. Now, that may not play everywhere in the country, but when youre trying to win battleground by battleground, doing things that will get a lot of local attention can be effective. Thats certainly why the campaign is strategizing and using the president s time that way, both the white house overlay as well as the campaign sort of importance of North Carolina. So the president will be doing that today. Now, we think of kenosha and how this larger narrative is playing out, the president was asked in kenosha something hes been asked before and a subject he is reluctant to really engage on, and that is the issue of systemic racism. Remember North Carolina today where he will be visiting has a larger africanamerican population of voters than wisconsin does. Perhaps the carryover of this part of the story line will be important there. Here is how the president was asked that question and how he chose to respond to it during his kenosha event. Do you believe systemic racism is a problem in this country . You know, you just keep getting back to the opposite subject. We should talk about the kind of violence that weve seen in portland and here and other places. Its tremendous violence. You always get to the other side, well, what do you think about this or that. The fact is weve seen tremendous violence and we will put it out very, very quickly if given the chance. Thats what this is all about. So the president dismissive of the question, just not willing to engage on it and instead turning back to his own preferred message which he believes has more potency for him, this law and order argument that hes making, and it is one that does not engage on some of the issues that are broader at the root of what was going on in kenosha. Instead hes trying to drive a narrative and in some instances ignore some of the facts and some of the human side of this where the president has just not connected in the same way, certainly not the way the bidens will likely do tomorrow. Its a stark divide and thats what voters will have to consider. A stark divide indeed, kelly odonnell. I want to talk with david jolly, former republican congressman from florida. No longer affiliated wi. David, let me start with this decision by joe biden to go to kenosha. Do you think this is an important decision and what do you expect to see . It is. Its the right decision. Understand the nuance in joe bidens response to the president here. Hes not taking the president s bait, if you will, to try to divide the nation. Donald trump speaks of this as two americas and he wants to divide the nation and hes trying to force joe biden to pick a side. Biden is not doing that. Biden is speaking to unit and pointing out its only one person, donald trump, who is actually trying to divide us. So i think the message youll hear from joe biden will be the soul of america message. He has condemned the violence of protesters when they do act violently. He has said he does not want to defund the police. You will see him support the protests. Youll see him support the calls for greater justice in the killing of civilians by cops where it is not warranted. Youll see him speak to that, but also see him speak to the themes of law and order within a community done in a unifying way. I do think, chris, he cannot spend too much time on this. Donald trump wants this to be the debate. Joe biden needs to address it. He needs to visit. He needs to show leadership and then he needs to get back to talking about the covid pandemic, to health care, to education, taxes, immigration, the core issues of his campaign. That really is the key here yamiche, thinking about one of the things that happened yesterday. Obviously there were photo ops for the president. It wasnt just a visit. It was a campaign stop. He was in front of one of the businesses that was damaged. It turns out it wasnt even the owner who was praising the president and who had his picture taken. It was the previous owner because the current owner of the business didnt want to be used for the president s political purposes. Given that, talk about the need to distract by the president from the ongoing pandemic and what were likely to hear from him when he finds out that joe biden is headed to kenosha. President trump has been searching for a Campaign Message that would stick against joe biden. You had him talking about joe biden possibly not being physically able to do the job of the presidency. He talked about joe biden letting china take over the United States. It seems like hes settled on this issue and argument that joe biden would not make america safe, and that the suburbs would be abolished if he was elected. What you saw yesterday with the president going to kenosha was the president going to a city still reeling, where several local officials including democrats, didnt want him there. He was going on false pretenses. Its a little bit of a rabbit hole. The president was essentially making the case that he was there to thank federal Law Enforcement for taking care of the city when, in fact, wisconsin officials stressed to me that the governor, a democratic, he called in the National Guard, the state National Guard and also asked for National Guard from other states. They say there was no feder federalization of officials there. So thats one point to make, the fbi and u. S. Marshals are there, but not any federal Law Enforcement, not the dhs people weve seen in portland, oregon. I heard from democrats over and over again that joe biden needs to act like hes already president. That means go to kenosha, walk the streets, tell people you care about them. The release says hes going to be meeting with community leaders. Ive been talking to jacob blakes family. They said theyre happy to have joe biden reach out to him. Jacob blakes mother said we dont have words for President Trump, doesnt see him as someone he wants to talk to. Youll see a vastly different thing there. This distraction of talking only about violence and protests works for President Trump because we have this pandemic killing thousands of americans every single day, every single week. As a result the president can talk about violence instead of the pandemic. We see in polling, as you showed, that its working among independents and in wisconsin among even some democrats. Lets talk a little bit about North Carolina quickly if we can, david. The president s visit comes as polls show a tightening race there. The real clear politics average in North Carolina has trump leading by just one point. Its as toup. Tell me how you see this race in North Carolina and what youll be looking for in the days and weeks to come. Most races do tighten as you get closer to election day. Thats what were seeing. Democrats have reason to be hopeful in North Carolina. Its a bit of a swing state. The last president to win it was obama in 08. He lost it in 12. Trump won by a few points. Its a squeaker. Its good news democrats are in striking distance. You can also look at it through Trend Analysis and say in the down ballot race for senate, republican incouple bebt tom tillis was down eight or ten points by the last two or three months and now thats neck and neck. What were seeing affirmation of in pennsylvania, North Carolina and others, it is likely not a persuasion race. People know who they want to vote for. It is a turnout race, a mobilization race, a gettowork race for party advocates and activists throughout the country. David, weve got to go, but im curious what you think in this 2020 race, we always hear different numbers. Its always smaller than most people think. What do you think the true number of undecideds is right now . Less than 1 . Id put it in 3 to 5 . Its enough to turn the election but only if you get those undecideds to turn out. Its easier to get the decideds to turn out. Thats where the resources of each campaign are focusing. David jolly and yamiche alcindor, thank you so much. Weve got brand new poll numbers giving us a snapshot of where things stand. Well dig into pennsylvania specifically. That new poll out just this hour that shows the races tightening among the few important groups of people. Plus a covid outbreak on campus. Were live at the university of alabama where more than 1,200 people have tested positive and two instructors there tell nbc news theyre being told to keep their concerns to themselves. And its already available in parts of select cities. Like los angeles and in new york city. And its rolling out in cities around the country. With massive capacity, its like an eight lane highway compared to a two lane dirt road. 25x faster than todays 4g networks. In fact, its the fastest 5g in the world. From the network more people rely on. This is 5g built right. Only on verizon. A lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. Thats the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. And tailored recommendations. Just between us, you know whats better than mopping . Anything at the end of a long day, its the last thing i want to do. Well i switched to swiffer wet jet and its awesome. 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The school says it expects rolling waves of large quarantines moving forward. Another school dealing with the coronavirus outbreak is the university of alabama. With more than 1,200 students testing positive so far this semester. Thats where we find nbcs ellison barber. I know youve been talking with students and staff about this outbreak on campus. What are they telling you . Reporter hey, chris. One of the arguments we hear from School Officials is when you look at the number of student cases, positive cases of covid19, that its a relatively small percentage when you consider the entire student body here is well over 30,000, but about 87 of those student cases c