And no words have been said to confer that. Theres just something about appearing as the Vice President ial nominee that really changes the dynamic in that room. Especially in a race that right now shows Vice President biden sort of so clearly in the lead, not only nationally but in most swing states. Shes obviously, you know, shes not they havent won the election yet and theres 21 days to go, but because she and her running mate are i think so wellpositioned, people are looking at her as the sort of Vice President in waiting. Yes. And you can you can feel that in the hearing room, i think. Yeah, and its everyone in the hearing room, including the republicans can feel that. Rachel, i learned something on your show, as i do every night. And i have to say, i am very surprised, very surprised to learn that the first drivethrough voting ive ever heard of, youre telling me is happening in texas, instead of california. How did california get beaten on drivethrough voting . Rachel, your home state. I mean, come on. What happened . You know, the states that do mailin voting have often done, like, mail drivethrough mailin dropoff sites which ive seen. I remember the first time i saw that in colorado, i just stopped dead in the street. What are they doing . Theyre voting right there from their cars. Wait a second. And then i realized, oh, theres no polling places. People are actually voting from home and this is just a place to drop it off. Harris county, do not sleep on Harris County right now. Right. That is a gigantic county. Millions of people. Houston itself is huge, but Harris County is go is zillions of people. And to have that young, innovative, super ambitious clerk who has completely taken over and reimagined what it takes to vote in that county while at the state level Texas Republicans are trying to shut all of texas down and make it as hard as possible, its a great, great story and hes like a super fascinating public figure at this point. Yeah, you just introduced us to another star. That was a great segment. Thanks, lawrence. Thank you, rachel. Well, well be joined tonight by the winner of last nights Kentucky Senate campaign debate. Amy mcgrath is going to join us after Mitch Mcconnell last night in their debate appeared to be a senator who was really out of shape on how to run a reelection campaign, which can happen after 36 years in the United States senate. We will also be joined by senator Amy Klobuchar, who was a key factor in todays confirmation hearing, Supreme Court confirmation hearing. But we begin tonight with the president ial campaign and with only 21 days left in the president ial campaign. Its obama time. Today joe biden said president barack obama is going to be doing campaign events. Joe biden said hell be out on the trail. Another day means another National Poll showing joe biden clearly in the lead. Todays Morning Consult poll of likely voters shows joe biden with an eightpoint lead nationally at 5143. And the important swing state of florida, a Florida AtlanticUniversity Poll of likely voters shows joe biden four points ahead of donald trump at 5147. And today campaigning in florida, joe biden made an emotional appeal to senior citizens. This president cares more about the stock market than he does about, you know, wellbeing of seniors. One day before we cross the threshold of 200,000 deaths, you may recall this, the president was at a campaign rally. And he insisted that the virus was, and i quote, affects virtually nobody. Quote, just elderly people. With heart and other problems. Nobody. Think about that. Who was he talking about when he said it affects virtually nobody . He was talking about americas seniors. He was talking about you. He was talking about my family. Youve worked hard your whole life contributing to society. Building a family. Building the country. Serving america. You deserve security. You deserve respect and peace of mind. But youre not getting it. Youre expendable. Youre forgettable. Youre virtually nobody. Thats how he sees seniors. Thats how he sees you. Joe biden talked to the grandparents of florida as only a grandparent can. While he throws superspreader parties at the white house where republicans hug each other without concern of the consequences, how many of you have been unable to hug your grandkids in the last seven months . I got six of them. Two of them, my deceased sons children, boy and a girl, live not far from me. They can walk through the woods. The only way i see them, i stand on the back porch and we stand down and i bribe them with haagen da haagen dazs bars. But every single day i contact them. But i cant hug them. I cant embrace them. In michigan a rieders poll of likely voters shows joe biden eight points ahead of donald trump, 5853. And in north carolina, a monmouth poll shows two important scenario. It depends on whether there is a high turnout of likely voters or a low turnout of likely voters. In the highturnout scenario, joe biden has a fourpoint lead over donald trump at 5046. In a low turnout scenario, joe biden has just a onepoint lead over donald trump at 4948. High turnout is what were seeing in states with early voting already under way. In georgia, more than 128,000 voters went to the polls on monday, a record for the first day of early voting in the state. Today early voting began in texas. The New York Times reports, in texas, the first day of early voting brought long lines in the states Major Urban Centers with hourslong waits in san antonio. Officials attributed the long lines to high turnout as well as ballots that require more time to fill out. A change in state law forbidding straight ticket or onepunch voting means voters can no longer choose a partys entire slate with one mark, but must manually select each candidate on the ballot. Almost all eligible voters in Travis County are registered to vote this year. Travis county, texas. Travis county, where the texas state capital of austin is located, is the fifth most populous county in texas and the Austin Statesman reports of the county more than 850,000 eligible voters, a record 97 of them are registered to vote in the november 3rd general election. Donald trump went to pennsylvania tonight, where the latest poll shows joe biden ahead by seven points. Over donald trump. At 5144. And while the candidates are on the campaign trail every day, in washington, d. C. This week, the confirmation hearing of Donald Trumps choice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court has delivered an opportunity for democrats to drive home the message that donald trump and every Republican Senate candidate is trying to take Health Care Away from millions of americans. Trump has repeatedly vowed to get rid of the aca. Hes failed time and time again, but hes promised over and over again to tear down the Affordable Care act. President trump has made it crystal clear. Hes promised that his nominees would overturn the aca. Leading off our discussion tonight, john heilemann, National Affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc. He is executive editor of the recount and cohost of showtimes the circus. And zerlina maxwell, director of programming at sirius xm. She is the host of zerlina on nbcs streaming service peacock. Zerlina, i want to start with you and the Vice President ial campaign which in a sense took place at the Senate JudiciaryCommittee Hearing with Vice President candidate senator Kamala Harris making a very effective appearance there. And that is in effect where the Vice President ial campaign for Kamala Harris is basically spending this week. Well, think thats a good thing for the Vice President ial campaign of Kamala Harris, in that it allowed her to hone in on i think what the message of the democrats has been this week, which is that, you know, stop with the gaslighting, stop with the pretending that we dont know how this particular judge and judge Amy Coney Barrett will vote if she is confirmed. We picked her or the republicans picked her for specific reasons, that she agrees with overturning the aca and also has written in negative terms about the right and freedom for women to make choices over their own bodies. And so i think that the democrats have been smart to have a focused and targeted message. Theres a lot of talk about other aspects of her background that i think could siderail and deterrent the more important and prescient concern which is preexisting conditions are an issue that every single american is thinking about exactly in this moment because we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and if you have had covid19, that in and of itself is a preexisting condition. Lawrence, so i think voters are voting for their survival in a lot of ways, and i think the Supreme Court hearing today and Kamala Harris presence reminds voters that they have choices and theyre making them today and they will be through november the 3rd. John heilemann, joe biden in florida today using, of course, Donald Trumps own words against him because no candidate in history has ever supplied the opposition with more ways to use their words. Donald trump, who has said publicly that really nobody gets the coronavirus anymore, except maybe some elderly people who might have heart issues. Yes, donald trump is in the business, lawrence, of providing inkind political contributions to joe biden. Hes been doing it for four years as president to whoever the democratic nominee would be, and more recently when we had joe biden, hes given him lots of ammunition all day long. And i think the florida you know, the create today is pretty stark. You know, we had President Trump in florida yesterday. We have joe biden in florida today. It is the case that with all of the discussion weve had about, like, how Election Nights going to play out, is there ohio are we going to know various states on Election Night . The one state we feel pretty confident well know on Election Night is florida. And its a state where if joe biden wins it, were going to know definitively probably by 10 00 or 11 00 on Election Night, if joe biden wins it, its almost impossible for donald trump to win the presidency without florida. His team admits that. Joe bidens team admits that. Weve seen a string of polling showing exactly why. On display in your program here in the intro, which is seniors. There is not a world where donald trump who won seniors by five or six points nationally in 2016 and won it by eight or nine in florida, a world where joe biden is ahead by three or four points with seniors or maybe more right now in florida. Thats not a theres no math where that works for donald trump. You cant win florida and have your senior your position with seniors flipped by a doubledigit margin, to have a net doubledigit loss in that column. So joe biden is going in for the kill today with that appearance he had today, and i would say, you know, that is one of the Great Stories of the polling right now, is not just how the battleground states stand or how the National Polls stand, its the unraveling of trumps coalition starting with seniors, suburban women, white white suburban women. These are like parts of the coalition that have just completely unravelled over the course of the last couple of weeks and they are why joe biden is in a tremendously commanding position heading into election now less than three weeks out from election day. Speaking of suburban women, we have new video of donald trump speaking in pennsylvania tonight directly to them. And ive been saying since the beginning of the Trump Presidency there is no chance of donald trump being reelected if he does not learn how to speak to voters whose support he does not already have. And so were going to take a look at donald trump doing that tonight. Hes made the big pivot. Hes now trying to speak to voters that he does not already have. Lets see how he did with this. So i ask you to do me a favor. Suburban women, will you please like me . Please. Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, okay . Zerlina, hows he doing with that outreach to voters he doesnt already have . I dont think hes doing so well. And i think part of the reason is the way he talks to to voters who he doesnt assume already support him is with contempt. Hes he does it in a mocking tone, almost to say how dare these these women not support me. Look at how im doing a good job in protecting them from these, frankly, forces that i made up. You know, race racist mobs coming into the suburbs. Hes making up things that they should be afraid of that dont actually exist. But one of the things that i think is really important to connect here, lawrence, between not just suburban women but also these senior voters that you see donald trump losing is the fact that covid19 is the through line. So at the beginning of this pandemic, not just in the past couple of weeks, you know, there was a 11 seniors died every hour. Thats something that is going to stick to the person that was in charge of federal policy. And certainly there is an argument in terms of the state policy, but certainly at the federal level, thats the most visible example of a failure in policy in implementing the necessary ppe for those people who work in those homes. So not just the suburban women who, frankly, are taking care of a lot of those parents who live in those homes, but also those seniors themselves who see themselves as expendable, to your point, and thats why donald trump is losing in this moment. John heilemann, ill never forget seeing those amazing long and inspiring lines in south africa when voters got their first chance to vote for Nelson Mandela for president. And i remember thinking that right. And saying that, you know, yeah, we would get lines like that in this country if we ever had a candidate like Nelson Mandela, but it turns out were getting lines like that in this country because people are getting to the polls to vote against a candidate who they want to stop. Right. Well, lets not forget we had lines big, long lines in 2008 for barack obama, and that was a drew comparisons to the mandela election. You know, i think one of the things that, lawrence, there are two things that are going on that is true. One is that there is an unprecedented early vote right now. I think the number is now close to 11 Million People have voted early so far that have been tabulated. At this time four years ago, the number was under 1 million, all right . So youre talking about an exponential increase in early vote and we know why that is. Its some of its driven by a desire to get donald trump out. Theres no doubt theres a lot of democratic enthusiasm to get donald trump out. Some of it has to do with people being concerned about covid and theyre switching to the early vote, but the problem with that, lawrence, i will say, in some of the places we see the lodge lines its because of the fact that donald trump and his his toadies, his flunkies in these states have reduced the options for people to do inperson early voting, and so the lines are a form of voter suppression, and theres a lot of people that want to get out and vote but theres not that many places to do it. Im concerned about those lines. It shows a couple of things. People really want to vote against donald trump. And on the other side, a lot of governors in red states are trying to keep them from early voting. John heilemann, zerlina maxwell, thank you both for starting us off tonight. Really appreciate it. Thanks, lawrence. Thanks. Up next, the theater of the absurd that is the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of a nominee chosen by the most corrupt president in history. 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I certainly hope that all members of the committee have more confidence in my integrity than to think that i would allow myself to be used as a pawn to decide this election for the american people. Well, okay, but how can anyone have confidence in the integrity of a Supreme Court justice nominated by the most corrupt president in history