This morning our new poll and what it reveals about the election with 19 days to go. Were live on capitol hill, the fourth and final day of Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Senate republicans getting ready to hold the first procedural vote on judge maria bartirobr a barretts nomination, and all of it against the backdrop of what weve been talking about, this pandemic, cases of covid rising in most of the country. Infections up in 40 states and territories as we get close to a stunning 8 million cases nationwide. . If you lk things go, george, that is ridiculous. Im joined by Kelly Odonnell outside the white house, monday that alba in greenville, and Steve Kornacki at the big board. Ali, on the news out from the Biden Campaign, Kamala Harris off the campaign trail for a few days. What can you tell us . We just got off a phone call with the Biden Campaign where they were explaining the reasoning behind this, effectively two people traveling with Kamala Harris last week around the Vice President ial debate have since tested positive for coronavirus. One of them a flight crew member, the other her Communications Director, liz allen. They say Kamala Harris is going to be off of the campaign trail now. She was supposed to do stops in North Carolina and ohio in the coming days, but theyre going to pull her off the campaign trail until sunday. They say out of an abundance of caution. I want to read to you a piece of the statement where they explain effectively whats going on here. The Campaign SaysKamala Harris was not in close contact, as defined by the cdc, with either of these individuals during the two days prior to their positive tests. As such theres no requirement for quarantine. Regardless, out of an abundance of caution and in line with our campaigns commitment to the highest levels of precaution, we are canceling senator harris travel through sunday but she will keep a robust schedule of virtual activities to reach voters across the country. Now the Biden Campaign says this is why they have those precautions in place, so that if someone unfortunately tests positive for coronavirus, they have the ability to stop the spread within the campaign, though they point out that the last time that senator harris and former Vice President biden were together was last week during that Campaign Event in arizona, effectively making the case that there is no harm here for the former Vice President s exposure and the same thing for senator harris. Again, they say theyre pulling her off the campaign trail out of an abundance of caution, but there is really the question that as you see this happening in the campaign, and you mentioned spikes happening across the country, on that phone call that we were just on, we asked what this means for travel broadly and the Campaign Said this is why they have the procedures. I would also point out biden and harris are tested regularly. The last test the Campaign Says that senator harris had was a negative pcr test yesterday on wednesday. And theyre not only testing regularly, ali, but the campaign is sharing that information publicly regularly. Monica alba, its interesting senator harris is coming off the campaign trail, Vice President pence and President Trump are picking up their road trips with a rally for the president today, where you are in North Carolina. Reporter ramping up intensely, hallie and at approaches to the coronavirus cases within their own ranks couldnt be more different. You had there the Biden Campaign and the harris aides coming out and acknowledging this ahead of time, thats not something weve seen from the white house and your day job of course when the president himself and the aides around him tested positive, we first learned most of those through news reports, so an incredible contrast there. But yes, the president is about to hit the midpoint of an intense stretch of rallies, eight in six days, and this after he was sidelined himself of course for those ten days after he was diagnosed with coronavirus, and we should also point out that Kamala Harris was coming here to North Carolina. Its the first day of inperson early voting here in this battleground state, which is critical. Thats why the president wants to be here today. Vice president pence and the second lady will be in North Carolina tomorrow. Pence is currently in miami where you are, hallie, campaigning today. So that is the critical contrast here. You see them completely ramping up, leaning into this travel in the final stretch. Thats not something thats going to slow down, but Campaign Aides telling me that the president and the Vice President expect to be on the trail every single day until election day with those surrogates as well but another big, big difference is that youre going to see a giant crowd here today in greenville. Thousands expected. You can see some of them lined up behind me at events weve seen all week long, have no social distancing and incredibly inconsistent mask usage, continually flouting those coronavirus guidelines, because they call these peaceful protests in a state where as ali was referencing we are seeing spikes of coronavirus that are very concerning as we head into this fall wave, hallie. Thats for sure, monica, something we saw as well in iowa, where the president was last night. Ali, you are in philly. I am in miami. Our two locations happen to be the site of the two town halls with the candidates happening on two different networks, abc and here on msnbc and nbc news, in lieu of that second president ial debate, talk about how the Biden Campaign is preparing for this, what kind of stakes there are around this moment. Hallie, theoretically you and i should have been standing together, albeit six feet apart in miami because we were supposed to see candidates share a debate stage. You and i know the plan went out the window when the Debate Commission wanted to make it virtual and President Trump said that was a waste of his time. The Biden Campaign wasted no time finding another date, doing a town hall with another network. President trump doing a town hall with nbc news and our own savannah guthrie. Youll get the split screen, the difference is two different stages for the split screen. The Biden Campaign feels good about the format. When this was a debate sharing the stage it would still be the same format well see the candidates in. Town hall style taking questions from voters, a format the Biden Campaign feels the former Vice President thrives in and heard them say theyd be up for and signaled for the next debate upcoming includes questions from voters, again, they feel thats a positive format for the Vice President as we head into the final weeks of the campaign. And we should note, i havent been down to check out the set in miami but lots of precautions are in place considering this debate at least the town hall on nbc is taking place two weeks after the president s positive covid diagnosis. There was of course that letter from independent doctors at the nih including Anthony Fauci indicating that it did not appear that the president was shedding infectious virus, everyone is required to wear mask, coming on the air after having taken a covid test as all of our staff has as well. The town hall the new polling without from the nbc news wall street journal poll shows joe biden still has a healthy lead over donald trump, so this is really one of the last opportunities that the president has to make his case on a very big platform and maybe try to turn the tide a little bit. What are you seeing in the numbers . Inside of three weeks, hallie, double digits, bidens advantage in our new poll over trump, the last time you had an incumbent president this far behind, this close to the election, well it was the most recent incumbent to lose reelection, that was george bush sr. Back in 1992. One interesting note here to keep in mind, trump down 11 here at 42 against biden. He is at 44 in the job Approval Rating and weve been seeing this in most of the polls two, three, four points, trump is doing better in his Approval Rating than he is in the headtohead, so if he can get the folks who approve of him as president , but arent yet saying theyre voting for him, that could make it at least a little tighter for him but certainly have a long way to go. Look at some of the changes weve seen in the election. Here is the biggest i think Senior Citizens in our poll, biden continuing to lead, tenpoint advantage for biden over trump among seniors, this was a big group for trump in 2016, it has been a big group of Senior Citizens for republicans for the last two decades. Go back 20 years to find a democrat who has carried the senior vote in a president ial election. Wow. And again consistently the numbers vary but consistently last few months weve been showing biden ahead with Senior Citizens and also if you break this down by race, i draw your attention to the white vote because this is where the big changes come from four years ago, this is more than twothirds of the electorate white voters. Trump is leading among white voters 5046 but he won them by 15 to 20 points in 2016, so to come down from that to just a fourpoint lead with a group that big, thats a huge difference and finally, i do want to show you, this one, hallie, look at the split. Folks who already voted or say they plan to vote earlier by mail, look at that. Almost a 40 point edge there for biden. Folks say ill wait until election day, overwhelming advantage for trump. A huge tis connect between the parties in how they plan to vote. Democrats very likely to be saying theyre going to do it early. Republicans very likely to say no, not early, election day. I think there are so many interesting numbers to look at in that poll, steve and kelly o. , one of the numbers i think is attracting some attention shows how the race could maybe tight be over the next 19 days on the issue of the economy with republican s polling better, 13 points ahead of democrats on the issue, voters say is the most important one to them. Kelly on the topic of the economy, we know the president likes to talk about it. I expect well hear about it tonight at the town hall in miami, and it comes as were getting some new weekly jobless claims. They are worse than expected, 898,000 new claims filed last week. No sign of a deal even amidst this backdrop between the white house, between congress on some kind of relief. Where do things stand on that this morning . Millions of americans want to know. Reporter certainly the economic numbers make it a harder slog for the president , who is certainly using the economy as one of his ramps to try to curry favor with voters to be are he elected. He likes to talk about a v economy that sharply declined and shot back up. Thats harder for him to do when we see numbers like this and there are about 10 million or so jobs that need to be reput into the economy to get us back where we were precovid. Thats a challenge for the president. This morning hes also dialing in to do another interview with fox business, so hell likely be talking about this and talking about how hes going to address the economic piece. The president s been using his twitter feed to try to negotiate from afar with capitol hill on a covid relief package. He has talked about things like wanting enhanced unemployment or another round of those direct economic payment checks to individuals, and yet that has not moved at all. He has not spoken with nancy pelosi in about a year, not any personal contact. Hes been using of course the treasury secretary and his chief of staff as chief negotiators, so congress is not looking like theres going to be a development. Theyre also busy with the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation. For the president can he tweet his way and talk about the numbers but the likelihood of any kind of a covid deal before the election day it looks dim. Its always possible but its going to be a challenge. So the economy, his one real strength among all polling areas taking another hit today. Hallie . And kelly, to that point, as you and i are having this conversation on the air, President Trump just said to another interviewer he wants to as he said before go big or go home. He wants to go higher than the 1. 8 trillion figure. As you point out even the treasury secretary is acknowledging not likely before election day. Kelly odonnell, monica alba, ali vitali, Steve Kornacki, thank you for kicking us off on this busy thursday morning. We havent hit capitol hill yet where confirmation hearings are going on for judge Amy Coney Barrett. Remember, these are outside witnesses testifying today, and it comes as were getting a new time line on the vote on her confirmation. Well bring that to you in a live report. We have another live report our kate snow looking at why people, some of them are getting so attracted to qanon, that bananas radical right wing Conspiracy Theory whose popularity is increasing more and more in the pandemic. And battleground wisconsin where the number of covid cases is spiking. Were live with one state official and how this might affect the vote with election day, closing in now just under three weeks away. Today spread a little love my way spread a little somethin to remember philadelphia cream cheese, made with fresh milk and real cream. Makes your recipes their holiday favorites. The holidays are made with philly. Their laundry smells moremily amazing than ever. In flings, uh, honey . Isnt that the dogs towel . Hey, me towel su towel. Theres more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling. Gain. Seriously good scent i got this Mountain Bike for only 11. Dealdash. Com, the fair and honest bidding site. An ipad worth 505, was sold for less than 24; a playstation 4 for less than 16; and a schultz 4k television for less than 2. I won these bluetooth headphones for 20. I got these three suitcases for less than 40. And shipping is always free. Go to dealdash. Com right now and see how much you can save. We are back live from miami, talking about whats happening home in washington on capitol hill and this morning, a new update from that Senate Judiciary committee on the timetable for judge Amy Coney Barretts confirmation. Youre looking live right now at senator chris coons. These are witness hearings today, witness questions. Youre not seeing of course judge barrett at this point. Senator Lindsey Graham, also along the dais, theyll hold the vote one week from today, thats the latest time line. There is senator graham. Some senators are locked into debates. Ten witnesses today. Many democrats youve seen over the last couple of days marathon questioning zeroed in on the nonanswers with republicans seeming to start their victory lap praising barrett. Nbcs Garrett Haake is on capitol hill along with msnbc contributor melissa murray, law prover at New York University and former clerk to now Justice Sonia sotomayor. Garrett, bring us up to speed. Reporter the witnesses havent entered the room yet. Weve got a good oldfashioned debate actually broken out in the Senate Judiciary committee this morning about how we even got here, the appropriateness of taking a vote now or next week or on the floor at all, and about sort of what i would call the negative space around Justice Barrett or judge barretts answers to the questions over the last couple of days and nonanswers on health care, roe, the various decisions like that. We havent gotten to the witness portion. This is senators debating amongst themselves, the appropriateness of where we are in this moment but you mention the major headline here, the committee moving forward with its vote a week from today on the 22nd. I can also add that down in kentucky, where hes campaigning, the Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell made a little bit of news. He said he wants to start the process of bringing judge barrett to the floor the next day, that friday the 23rd. So weve been thinking that the vote, the final vote on her confirmation might be towards the end of that week, like the thursday before election day, but if mcconnell brings her to the floor on friday, and if he wants the senate to work over the weekend, he could potentially see the final vote as early as monday. Youre looking at an accelerated timetable on the accelerated timetable weve already been on and think of this as a way for republicans to increase their margin for error here, if somebody else gets sick, if Something Else goes wrong, it gives them a little bit more time to try to make sure theyre able to get this done before election day, which has always been the goal. Garrett, you