Claim credit for ending this pandemic. And no, the pandemic hasnt ended. And louisiana braces for yet another major storm to strike its shores this season. Number three. Its hurricane zeta. As it intensifies and heads toward new orleans. Welcome to wednesday. It is meet the press daily. Im chuck todd. Six days to go. Six. Joe biden is about to cast his ballot in delaware, then take questions from reporters. More than 72 million votes have been cast early so far. There are few signs that President Trump is chipping away at joe bidens lead. And the Trump Campaign is facing a severe financial disadvantage in crucial battleground states. Nowhere perhaps is that more noticeable than in florida. Look at this. From now until election day the Biden Campaign on its own has booked nearly 8 million in ads. The Trump Campaign by comparison is spending almost nothing. 300,000. And theyre leaving it up to the rnc and outside groups to try to pick up some of the slack. Emphasis on the word some. And while the rnc is spending more money than the dnc by about a million dollars, other democratic groups are collectively outspending republican groups again, this is in the state of florida. By about a 41 margin. A big part of this is michael bloomberg, for what its worth. But this is not all a florida only phenomenon. The bide encampaign the dnc and democratic groups are collectively outspending the Trump Campaign, the rnc and republican groups by, well, everywhere and by an enormous margin. Folks, when you look at these numbers, it shows you two important things. One is the Trump Campaign looks to be in dire financial shape. Just dire. They only have 10 million cash to be on tv for this last week on their own. And the Trump Campaign appears to be searching for any path to 270 that may not go through americas most important swing state, florida. You read that right. Theyre actually trying to see if there is a way for them to win without florida. As we showed you yesterday in our nbc battleground map, even if trump swept every swing state including florida hed still fall short right now. If they lose florida, it seems to be a lot harder to see a path to 270 for trump. Hes got to flip states that dont look flipable right now. Michigan and wisconsin being examples a and b. Now, the Biden Campaign, meanwhile, is keeping biden off the campaign trail with just six days to go. Let me repeat. Joe biden, the democratic nominee, with jsix days to go i not campaigning anywhere today. Now, depending what happens next week were either going to view this as a brilliant strategic decision, staying on message on the virus, or an epic blunder. The Biden Campaign clearly wants the focus to remain on the raging pandemic. And frankly look at the mess in wisconsin that the president has now participated in. This morning bide enwas briefed by a team of medical experts and moments ago he delivered some remarks in delaware. Yesterday the white house science office, and this stunned me, put out a statement listing ending the covid19 pandemic as a top accomplishment of President Trumps first term. Top accomplishment of trumps first term. At the very moment when infection rates are going up almost every state in our union. Biden said he will shortly be going to cast his ballot and then hell take questions from reporters. Well keep a close eye on that when it happens. But joining me now from outside of the white house is nbcs carol lee. Ali vitali is following the Biden Campaign for us in delaware today. Carol, let me start with you. This major cash crunch that i know that the Trump Campaign is trying to spin as saying we got as think campaign thats getting outspent does. We have the resources we need. Theres plenty of room. Theyre going to be in 12 states. But this looks to be just a enormous fail here and to me what it showcases is donald trump has not contributed anything i believe 8,000 total in inkind contributions has come from the candidate himself. The socalled billionaire has not written a single big check to his own Campaign Even when theyre running out of money. What does that tell us about how donald trump thinks about his chances . Its a great question, chuck. And not only cha, has the president not contributed significantly to his campaign that we know of but the campaign is still asking for big money checks from other donors. Theyve been having fundraisers over the past week, which is frankly extremely unusual for a campaign at this stage to be trying to scramble to raise to spend time fundraising. What the Trump Campaign says is that they dont they have the money they need as you said but also that their most important asset, and this is also something campaigns say when they dont have the money they would like to have, that their most important asset, the president , is out there and hes going to be going to as many states and making as many stops as he possibly can. And that in their estimation, according to people close to the president , could move a percentage point in certain battleground states according to them. Theyre really putting a lot of emphasis on the fact the president s having all these rallies thaerks has the energy. They think that sends a good message. The flip side of that is that there are others who say these images of these rallies with people not Wearing Masks, not socially distancing, packing together with the president , that thats something that actually can turn some voters off, especially in these states where youre seeing a spike in coronavirus cases. I want to actually play a bite from the president in omaha last night about the surge in the midwest. And then i want to ask about it on the other side because wisconsins extraordinarily bad. Take a listen. The midwest, little areas in the midwest, certain areas that are heated up right now. Theyll go down. Theyll go down very quickly. Theyll be down within two weeks theyre figuring. Theyll go down. Just like they did in florida, texas, arizona and so many others. The president himself was in wisconsin. Wisconsin has field hospitals. Wisconsin has an entire College Football team thats having to essentially quarantine because they have a massive outbreak there. Oh, by the way, the president was in omaha. Next door in lincoln is another Football Team named the university of nebraska whose game against wisconsin was canceled. My point is that here just where the president wants credit for opening the big ten his handling of the virus has canceled football in two crucial areas that the president just visited in the last 24 hours. I mean, their connection to these outbreaks has got to be something that worries somebody over there. Yeah, and chuck, if you listen to what the president just said, what you just played, thats almost verbatim of what he was saying back in march, about things being open for easter, churches being packed. So hes bringing this message as people say have seen this movie before. Hes bringing the same message, saying this is going to go away in a couple of weeks. And thats just not what people are extermination on the grou are experiencing on the ground. There is some concern among people close to the president but not enough concern for anyone to put astop to him holding these large cascale rallies. Hes made his bet and its not going to stop in the next five days. If donald trump and theres a lot of questions about how hes holding his rallies and how hes following Covid Protocols or not following Covid Protocols. Ali vitali, if theres a critique of the Biden Campaign, its are they being overly cautious with the candidate . I want to play a little clip from biden yesterday that clearly was a bit of a response about his travel schedule. Here it is. Im being responsible. Im not becoming a great spreader of covid. Im going to be all over the country. And i have been. But ive been responsible. We have not been doing these superspreading events, causing hundreds of people to come down with covid. So ali, i understand that. But it is odd to me that six days before election day he is not in a battleground state today. Not at all. I think the way you said it at the top is the way well look back at it. Either this will be brilliant or this will be the thing that was why they lost. I think that for them when you talk about how the biden team has campaigned they have wanted to campaign as they would govern, which is sciencebased, listening to cdc guidelines, consistent briefings by Health Experts. Thats what we saw biden doing here today in wilmington, getting a briefing from Health Experts and then going out and, again, focusing on the pandemic. One of the biden aides i was talking to the other day joked with me that we shouldnt expect to see this message change, if anything only sharpen, on the idea of the pandemic. Because if you look around every battleground state that we often talk about, the places where frankly biden is going to be going and that trump has been going are all experiencing surges right now. This is the issue that is inextricably linked with every voter as they step into a polling place because all of them are going to be Wearing Masks while they do it. So as much as trump wants to paint the reality that this is over, though i am a little confused about if they cant control it or if theyve already controlled it based on the competing messages that have been coming out, whats clear is that thats not the reality at all and joe biden has so the to consistently exploit that. Not just because its politics but because its the actual reality for every american. So the fact that hes off the campaign trail does not mean that hes off message. It does, though, breed . Hand wringing among democrats who wonder if this is the best approach. I guess well see, though, six days from now whether or not this was the right idea. But at least for right now we saw biden today making a speech on the message that he thinks is the winning message. And of course he did just go in to vote today too, chuck. So getting that out of the way ahead of the final sprint before election day too. Well, i do want to show his schedule for the next three days. And it includes and this will probably make democrats feel a little bit better. Tomorrow its two stops in florida, broward and tampa. Friday its iowa and wisconsin. Saturday its michigan. And its my understanding sunday and or monday and perhaps both will be some combination of pennsylvania. As much as they are toying with georgia, toying with texas, he is going to close in the core battlegrounds it looks like. Reporter exactly. And when i was talking to another aide on the biden team, they said this schedule is going to reflect where theyve put a lot of their money. We know hes spend more time in pennsylvania than any other state. There are so many reasons why it factors into the calculus there, both for cutting trump off at the electoral pass and also for getting themselves where they need to be on that electoral map. But you are seeing a good mix here of aggressive campaigning and then also campaigning in the place thats we would expect them to. Of course the Biden Campaign calendar includes places like michigan and wisconsin but at the same time youre seeing Kamala Harris today in arizona. On friday shes going to be in texas. Its really surprising to see a Vice President ial nominee hitting up mcallen texas in the waning days before election day, but it does show that theyre trying to both play offense and not necessarily defense but protective of the states that they know theyre going to need. And frank lly those states are ones from georgia to arizona to texas that you know democrats have been salivating over for years. Im going to pause you there. Joe biden just walked out from voting and hes going to talk right now fought press. Lets listen in. What i say is that there is no excuse whatsoever for the looting and the violence. None whatsoever. I think to be able to protest is totally legitimate. Its totally reasonable. But i think that the looting is just as the victims father said, do not do this. Its not what my son youre not helping. Youre hurting. Youre not helping my son. And there are certain things were going to have to do as we move along. And i think i know the local folks in philadelphia thinking about it as well. And that is how we deal with, how you diminish the prospect of lethal shooting in circumstances like the one we saw. Thats going to be part of the commission i set up to determine how we deal with these changes. But theres no excuse for the looting. [ inaudible question ]. Yes. Yes on both counts. Yes, i have a bill ready, number one. Number two, yes, i will work with republicans. And yes, i do have a proposal that relates to how we can improve the Affordable Care act beyond what it was before, which barack and i wanted to do at the time to add a public option, allowing people to keep their private insurance if thats what they choose they want to do, making it more affordable to get a better plan in terms of a goal plan, all the different plans, you can make it more affordable, subsidizing it more. And fundamentally changing the way in which the cost of medication is. Were going to lower it by a significant amount. And i believe we can get help from republicans as well. Why . Well, why . Because theyre seeing the reaction of the American People. Overwhelming. Overwhelming, the American People think drug prices are too high. Even the president , he continues to lie about it, even the president acknowledged early on that he thought medicare should be able to negotiate drug prices to lower prices overall. He hasnt done it. He doesnt mean it. But theres a lot of republicans that do mean it. So im confident we can get it done. Thank you all very much. You saw there joe biden took a couple of questions. One the unrest in philadelphia following the shooting of a black man there who wouldnt drop a knife. And a lot of questions about the use of force there. And you heard the former Vice President talk about a commission that he plans on forming on how to deal with police reform. And then the second question appeared to be a question about his health care plan. Joining me, marcos melitsas. Founder of the daily coast. And mark steele. Interesting when you look at both candidates in some ways one, not taking the rievirus seriously enough at all. And one if theres a criticism is he taking it too seriously at least when it comes to campaigning . Marcos, let me start with you. Is there any part of you thats nervous about the light biden footprint when it comes to campaigning, when it comes to the door knocking, when it comes to this stuff . It is probably the only hole in the campaign infrastructure, which is obvious why its there. Its due to the pandemic. Yeah. I was a little more worried, to be honest, about spending a lot more time in georgia and texas. And im somebody whos really gung ho on expanding the map. But if theres one thing im still traumatized over 2016 was Hillary Clinton looking at states like arizona without locking down michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. So thats the one piece that has me a little worries. But like you said he has plans to go back to those states in these last few days. So im a little less worried about it. And also lets not forget so many people have already voted. This is not a typical election. As weve known in the past. Michael steele, the question is the other way with the Trump Campaign. One of the things i said on sunday is the october surprise may be that were getting the third surge as election day comes. And the president seems to be insisting on making a huge push in the one region of the country that is experiencing a spike. And thats the midwest. This may not end well. Yeah. I mean, the president i am completely unsurprised that the president is finishing the campaign the way he did in 2016, the way he wanted to. Its letting trump be trump, doing these massive unsafe rallies. And i think that its really the only thing left available to him. He doesnt have the resources to do things virtually. He doesnt have the resources to let Television Ads and surrogates to the extent he has any left carry the load for him. So this is all he has left. Its all he knows. And hes going to end just the way he began. Michael steel, just to get people to properly understand what the rnc is doing here, the Trump Campaign is insisting its not out of money. But if the Trump Campaign were not out of money, would the rnc have to be using its resources right now to purchase donald Trump Campaign ads . Right. The campaign is broke. The president is not writing checks. Big donors are not writing more checks. The rnc is providing life support to a campaign that desperately needs it because the campaign has mishandled its finances coming into the critical final stretch of this race. Markos, when you look at the green wave that were seeing, we saw it in 18, and it did produce one could argue it did produce that probably made the difference in a lot of House Democrats going from 47 to 51. What do you think this advantage means this time down the ballot . What do you expect this green wave to produce . I mean, were seeing fundraising numbers that are just mindboggling, right . We have Jaime Harrison running for senate in South Carolina reporting 56 million. Thats president iallevel money just a few cycles ago. Were seeing house races markos, let me interrupt you here a minute. Markos, ive got to give you my favorite stat. Donald Trumps Campaign in the last week has booked 10 million in Television Ads. Jaime harrison in the last week ha