the coronavirus task force. there were no deaths in this country. the president said it was going to magically go away. we're months later, 210,000 dead, job loss at unprecedented scale hitting hardest latino and african-american communities. and for the vice president to still be fighting against science, he's presided over a task force that has mismanaged the crisis to the greatest level in the history of this country. he's still fighting against science. if they won't keep themselves safe, why will they keep americans safe. >> a poll shows vice president joe biden has a lead over president trump. are you concerned it might cause complacency among democratic voters who think 16 points, wow, i don't need to go vote? >> well, anderson, let me tell you, i'm not worried about

complacency. we can't show it. we've got a president saying he's probably going to try to deny the results of the election on november 3rd. so, our only guarantee that we can sweep him and all like him out of office is the biggest margin possible. and the good news is what we're seeing in virginia, we started early voting on september 18th. we are setting absolute land records in terms of early voting. ohio started early voting, i believe, yesterday or today, and senator sherrod brown was sharing with me earlier they're seeing tremendous energy and excitement. i think you're going to see democratic turnout off the charts. but we can't be complacent no matter what we see in the polls. president trump was down in the polls last time and he won. and he wasn't president. he didn't have tools at his disposal to disenfranchise or confuse or sow doubt. he's got the tools now, so we have to make it clear.

>> is pence a good debater sf. >> he's a great communicator. he was a radio talk show host for years before he got into politics. he can deliver a line even if he knows it to be untrue. that's a real challenge. kamala harris is sharp. you've seen her on the intel committee. she's a prosecutor who's often been in a courtroom arguing evidence. and when a vice president pence tries to paint happy talk about how president trump has done so well, i think you'll expect to see kamala marshall the evidence about 210,000 deaths, about 2 million jobs loss, social division. you'll see her do that well. >> i appreciate your time. >> you bet. thank you. >> our coverage starts 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." thanks coop.

welcome to "cuomo prime time." trump insists covid, no big deal. no big deal that now all but one member of the joint chiefs of staff are quarantining after exposure, that stephen miller now tested positive, mastermind of many of trump's divisive policies? also a fourth press aide has just tested positive. over two dozen have fallen to covid so far and gotten sick and more are likely given the continued unmasked madness in that place. the cases there are coming faster than anything we've seen deball this white house other than indictments and disgraceful exits. trump's recklessness has him losing key players just as his country needs him and his team most. instoefd making it better for people, he seems intent on

making it worse. ripping off his mask and letting his covid breath rip roar around the white house. does it make him look like a patriot and chief? he said he wanted to get back to work, so he gets out of the hospital but abandons negotiations on economic relief for millions until after the election. people are living week to week. millions are struggling to get by during a pandemic, and he's stilling just to risk it all. so, why would he think a dangerous stunt like ripping off his mask and, you know, doing this would be the right message? shameful but true. ripping that mask off was less dramatic than how he's ripping the scab off so many families' economic wounds. the economy is tanking. they need relief.

shame on the republicans. shame on the democrats. and shame on this president. most of those working are going to pay more in taxes than our billionaire potus only paying $750 a year in tacks. when asked about it in taxes, i paid millionsment what about those two years? i paid millions. no, he didn't. he lets others continue to struggle and tells you he's the best deal maker we've ever had. where's the deal? despite being fresh from the hospital, still being treated, trump is once again saying covid is no worse than the flu. that is wrong. in 8 months, covid has killed more people than the flu did in the last five flu seasons combined. there is now a warning on twitter about trump's disinformation again today. our president is lying to you about a pandemic. don't let it dominate. tell that to the people hooked up to ventilators right now

fighting for their lives. the widow of a 41-year-old broadway star killed by covid is a lot to tell the president. nick cordero's wife will be here exclusively in a moment. she wants to speak to all those victims and afflicted families who heard the president dismiss their pain. we have another round of thunder dome. it was sickening. the place, holding it, utah, 716 cases reported today. it's on the rise. that's where the vp debate is going to be. mike pence, the head of white house coronavirus task force has insisted on making it less safe by saying no plexiglass barrier between him and kamala harris. why? this is a cage match? the debate commission says it's not going to allow that. at what point do they stop taking unnecessary risks? is pence going to take the test

or happen like it did with trump? showed up too late. where are those negative test results for trump for last week? how hard are they to come up with? you think they'll just tell you the truth? did they test or not? where's the answer? all right. let's talk about the state of play. let's bring in dr. ashish jha and van jones. thank you both for joining us tonight. i'll take silence as acceptance. dr. jha, the idea of saying, hey, listen, i beat it, you can beat it. doesn't affect anybody really. it's just like the flu. you know, you can be just like me. don't let it dominate you. a public policy impact. >> yeah. where to begin, chris. look, this is not the flu. it's not the flu. we've known that since really since march. it's killed 210,000 fellow americans. and to keep iterating that is so deeply disappointing. i don't know why -- i really had hoped that somehow the president

going through this would be an awakening, he would realize how serious this is, and he would come back from it warning the american people to be more careful. and instead, he's telling people to ignore it and to act like it isn't there. and of course that's only going lead to more suffering and more death if people listen to it. >> and the debate. is there a chance, doc, that there could be another bad situation, where, you know, we saw from the last debate, people got sick? we saw the president's family refusing masks. how big is the risk here, or can it be managed? >> yeah, so, look, what we know now is that the president was probably infectious during that debate, and it is unacceptable that people show up to these things and don't follow the rules. there's a reason we have a set of rules. there's a reason the cleveland clinic has set up the rules we have. it's how we protect everybody. you don't get deflouted because you're the president or the

first family. i don't think they have any credibility for setting rules. they have been a public health disaster. and i think we should let the cleveland clinic set the rules for what is safe. i think the biden campaign should not show up if they're not going to have a safe environment. >> now you've got compromised based on schooling. so many have to stay home with their kids because we can't trace in schools. the president said you don't have to tell me, i wanted to make a deal. it's pelosi. she's crazy. she just wanted to help all the big cities but not the worker. i guess that means nobody works in big cities. do you think you get the stake for no deal? >> first of all, i mean, the idea that he would -- the president of the united states in the middle of this pandemic where you have people who are literally in lines for food -- food lines, people in cars for two, three hours just trying to get a little small box of food to take to their children, that

he would just tweet out that i'm just not going to talk to anybody about this until after you elect me, that is literally insane. it's politically insane because you've got people who were hoping that something would get done. he's now owning the failure. he's saying i'm going to cause the thing to fail. but it's also incredibly cruel because apparently what he's saying is if you don't reelect me, i'm not going to do anything in october, november, december or january until somebody else is in here. so, you're imposing four years of pain on the people. it's literally insane. and people are starting -- there's no rational explanation what you're seeing out of this white house at this point, none at all. >> well, what about the democrats won't make a deal? >> well, the democrats have been moving forward, mnuchin and pelosi were getting closer to a deal. now, the idea is if pelosi doesn't do what she's saying you're going punish the country for four months. that's insane. the two sides have been far

apart, but they were moving closer together. at least the spirit you get something done. mnuchin, i think, was caught as off guard as everybody else. the other thing is to pull the rug out from under all the republicans, including mnuchin himself, is just literally insane. something is desperately wrong in that white house right now. >> ashish, what do you think of the idea of the president going back to rallies and open events, which is almost undoubtedly how he got sick in the first place? >> yeah, so hard to know where he got infected. but the cdc guidelines on the is clear, chris. ten days after the on set of symptoms, up to the first ten days, he is contagious. he should be going nowhere. he should not be taking joyrides. he should not be doing the kinds of things he's been doing. that puts him at the end of this weekend. after that i think he can get out. he has not been careful and following guidelines. he's got to start doing that to protect people around him and

himself. people can get reinfected. we're going hope that doesn't happen. we're hoping there are people around him that are not infected. >> two more quick things. ashish, do you think the messages war is over, that that's it, too many people have heard from him saying masks don't matter, they've become a political statement and that's it that we're going to have a hard time getting under 40,000 cases until this virus just goes through enough bodies? >> no, so, look, 800 americans are dying every day. we can't give up on this messaging war. we have three or four tools, testing, isolation, distancing, mask wearing. i'm going to keep saying it until i'm blue in the face every single day. we've got to keep saying it because it's going to save lives. >> and then let me ask you this. so, the word out of the campaign is we need this debate. pence is going to show things about kamala harris that will really expose her as a weakness

for biden, and she is a literally a heart beat away if they get in. and it has to happen. they need it in the campaign. and pence is a radio host, former guide, great debater, and he will show that team at its best. >> bring your popcorn. kamala harris is no joke. i don't know who they're talking about. i don't know who they think are going to be able to run over or rollover, you're going to be dealing with a seasoned prosecutor. you're going to be dealing with one of the toughest people in american politics. she is no joke. bring your popcorn, make your soda pop. >> i have seen you spit chicken or popcorn at me when kamala harris said things in debates that caught you off guard. thank you both. be healthy. be well and thank you. >> thank you. you want to beat covid, you've got to be strong like trump and everything's going to

be okay, right? wrong. you can be really strong. you can be strong as i am. you can be twice as strong and you still die. 210,000 people can't speak for themselves anymore, but they weren't weak. a lot of them were old, but not all of them. just because you're old doesn't mean you have to die. but their loved ones like the widow of broadway star nick cordero, she can speak. >> it dominated his life. it dominated my life. it dominated our families' lives. have some empathy. why are you bragging? have empathy to americans that you are our leader. have some empathy to the people who are suffering and grieving. >> forget about the politics and remember that this is about people. that's what the pandemic is affecting. it's not about left and right. it's about everybody else. amanda cluts is with us. she lost her husband who was such a rising star, strong and

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sick and struggling. but still the president says, don't let it dominate you. don't be afraid, as if it is something sick people can control, as if we all get 24-hour care in a hospital and experimental treatments, that we can all but waste out of our own convenience. it's just a flu, no big deal. those words hurt. they're not just wrong. they're raw. so many who are sick and struggling and scared and coping with life changing loss, amanda cloots has joined this new family that no one wants to be a member of you. you know her. you know her late husband, nick cordero. they have awe little boy with the best name ever, elvis. 90 days she watched her husband fight like almost no other.

he was somebody to her, his kid, his family, husband fans. 41. prime of life. strong. talented. sweet. he fought. he didn't let covid dominate. he had no choice. thank you very much for taking the opportunity, especially at this time. first thing's first. how's elvis? >> he's perfectly happy healthy little boy. pg i thank god for him every day. >> man, and you should. and you know what? there will be a legacy for him to attach and understand about his father. and i'm happy for this to be part of it. you're home, you're dealing with enough, and you hear the president's non-cha lance, takes the mask off, no big deal, it's just like the flu, don't let it dominate, don't be afraid, you

can get through just like i did. how did those words hit you? >> chris, honestly it stopped me in my tracks. i was sitting here finishing dinner, and i saw the tweet first. and then i turned on the news and saw him speak live. and it broke my heart. it -- it -- it was like a gut punch, bringing back all of the -- the -- everything we went through. >> what do you think he doesn't understand? >> sorry. the flippant comments. don't be afraid? you know, we were afraid every single day. we were afraid for our lives. we were afraid for nick's life. and then, you know, you're afraid for the world.

to tell somebody to not be afraid of this disease that took a life, that took over 200,000 lives, it look over a million lives, gosh, it just -- you know, it -- like a dagger to the heart. >> we were talking a little bit about your husband struggling. you said nick had great care. this isn't about him going without. he had everything he could. but that's the point. it doesn't matter that you're a big beautiful broadway star with lungs the size of barrels and flexibility and strength for days and you're only 41. it can be anybody anywhere and then the whole family is affected. and to this president, it's something that he doesn't even really want to have measured. he doesn't even want us to know the numbers. what have you learned about how big the community is that you've become a part of through this

misfortune? >> it's incredible. i mean, you know, the amount of help and love and kindness and support that my family receives, that nick's family received from our community here in california to all the people that have been following the story, it's just been incredible. and i truly couldn't have got through it without it, for sure. >> so, now here's the problem. we're still in it. >> yeah. >> you know, nick was a cautionary tale for people. it rocked people. not just because of his stardom, because he's a somebody, but because of what he was. 41, a big gorgeous strong healthy person. you're not supposed to struggle. 95 days, an epic fight. but it shook people and made them realize how random this

thing can be. and i hear from people like you all the time that the fact that this isn't at the top of the agenda of doing everything that can be done to get people in masks and socially distanced and test, the fact that everything's not being thrown at it is an insult. do you feel that? >> absolutely. i think that, you know, what he wrote in that tweet was such an insult, especially his words about don't let it dominate you. you know, it not only has dominated the lives of the people we've lost, it's dominated the families of those people. it dominated and it still does the hospital, the health heroes that we're workire working ever save my husband, the doctors and nurses. it dominated people who have lost their jobs and small

businesses that have been closed and will not reopen. people don't have incomes. they don't have anything right now. and it's dominated everything. so, his comments that he wrote not only are so insulting to everyone who lost a loved one and is in the grieving position that i'm in at the moment. but it is even larger than that. it's insulting. he owes the world -- he owes america an apology for what he said. that's how insulting it was. >> you're not going to get one. the question is why. do you think it's that he doesn't agree? or do you think it's that his calculation is this pandemic is bad for him and he needs to put the message out that it's not a big deal and it doesn't really affect anybody and we're testing more than anywhere, and look, he's fine it's going to go away? >> i think he had a chance yesterday to come out and be a

true leader and a chance to show empathy to his country, to the people that have suffered. and he had a chance since having covid to even try to use the two days that he suffered in the hospital to relate to us, to relate to the world, to relate to the united states of america. and he didn't. and instead -- instead of showing empathy and heart, he showed his bragging nature and how well he's doing and how great he's feeling after 20 year years, he's never felt better. i wish i could say that to my husband. even if nick would have survived, the complications that covid had on his body, he would

have dealt with for the rest of his life. we would have dealt with for the rest of his life. and, you know, it's just sad to me that he had a chance yesterday to really, after being diagnosed with covid and being in the hospital, he had a chance to be a human and not political. not republican/democrat, a human, a human being that has been a part of this pandemic. and he chose to go the other way and it was very upsetting and really horrible and sad. >> you've got a lot on your plate. you are not a politician. >> no. >> this is not an agenda driver for you. >> no. >> and i really appreciate you just coming out to speak to the pain because you know a lot of people share your pain. and you want to speak for them and let this president know and the others in leadership, people

are hurting and they need help. and what is said matters -- not as much as what's done, but it matters. so, i thank you for putting a fresh cut in your own wound so that other people can understand what's happening. and i'm very sorry to meet you under these conditions, but you know what? you're putting some purpose to your pain, and there is a blessing in that. so, thank you. >> thank you, chris. >> for giving me and the audience a chance to understand what is real. forget about left and right, just real. amanda, the best to you and elvis. we're a call away. >> thank you. >> okay. >> thank you. >> god bless. >> good night. >> we'll be right back. ne, you can get up to 60% off amazing hotels. and when you get a big deal... ...you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal.

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something really important about the vaccine. you may remember last night there was a headline that the fda is being told, hey, don't put in any more barriers to the

vaccine coming out because the fda had suggested, hey, we may not be ready by the election. we have to make sure this is safe first. remember the white house said there will be no politics. new fda rules make it more difficult for them to speed up vaccines for approval before election day, just another political hit job. i thought, mr. president, you said there would be no politics played with the fda. i thought you had all your people say no, no, no, this is about the science, this is about the medicine, this is about the experts. how can it be a political hit job by your own guy, the guy at the head of the fda you just put in there months ago? this is on you and it is about the truth and it's about safety. that's what should dominate you. truth. and here is another dose of medicinal truth. you said kids had to go back to school. you said it was a must. i and so many others kept saying to you, yes, you're right.

tell us how. you did nothing. schools are not open in enough places. the hybrid, the at-home, it's a mess. ask any parents. teachers are dog their damnedest. the schools are too. the president is pressed to do something about. after many months of doing nothing, now he says he has the answer. listen. >> we're announcing our plan to distribute 150 million avid rapid point of care tests. >> he's reading that because he doesn't know what he's talking about, but it sounded good. even dr. fauci last night had to couch that number. >> the ultimate goal would be 150 million purchased. and i think there will be more after that. i'm going to be pushing for more. >> he's pushing for more. here's the problem, two problems. one, we haven't gotten any. they have been making this promise for months. and then you have the math of

it. 150 million tests. holy cow. do the math. there are more than 50 million kids in public schools alone. i know, catholic, christian schools, struggling as well. i know. we'll get to that. but the issues aren't the same. so, let's stick with the bulk of kids in public school just for a second. if you were testing those kids every other day and you could argue that you should be doing it daily, you get 150 million tests, won't last you a week. and that's before we look at the private schools and the parochial schools. you've got 6 million kids there as well. that's real. got to deal with it. you also have the teachers. 3 million in the public schools, the faculty, the staff. they and their families count too, right? they haven't been part of the discussion. so, dr. fauci's pushing for more. that's good. but again, the basic problem is what are you pushing for more? we haven't gotten gotten any yet. it was back in march that trump

made a big show about the kind of rapid tests we would have. he didn't do a damn thing about it until last month when they announced these 150 million tests. any day, any day, any day. the first batch, 6.5 million were supposed to go out last week. can't find any proof of them in schools. you know what happens now. blame shift. where are they? those sucky governors. got one in my family. they need to figure out how to distribute them and to what schools. it's on them. it's only 6.5 million. here's the big problem that nobody's telling you. testing alone. that just counts cases, doesn't stop cases, right? they're not going to keep kids safe all by themselves. here's the example of the truth of this proposition. the white house, for months, they told you they didn't need to spread out or wear masks because -- >> why won't you wear a mask? is it sort of a personal

political statement? >> it's a personal decision. i'm tested regularly. >> how did that age? it's not a personal decision. your personal decision ends when it starts to affect my person. this white house bet their lives on rapid testing as a panacea and that masks were weakness. they weren't even using the tests correctly. we were told the white house was testing everyone who got near the president and the president. where are his negative tests from last week before thursday? silence. but look at this. even worse. the fda's emergency authorization for the tests, called avid id now, says it was designed to be used within the first seven days of symptoms. what does that mean? it's not built to test people who feel fine, known as asymptomatic. when you're asymptomatic, those

tests miss as many as one in three cases. asymptomatic misses one in three cases. now the white house cluster starting to make a little bit more sense? the ones we're talking about for the schools are also made by avid. durc different model, call but is it different a quality. once again, according to the fda they are also only authorized for use after you show symptoms. so, this is your big answer? not enough tests that don't catch enough cases? look, off label usage isn't necessarily a bad thing. we certainly need to be thinking outside the box. we got no tools in the box as it is. rapid tests are a critical piece for schools and it should have been done months ago, but you're still going to need masks and social distancing. in other words, this doesn't fix the hybrid model mess, and it's

going to take a hell of a lot more than 150 million. those are the facts. we have to do better. we'll be right back. d now your . still a father. but now a friend. still an electric car. just more electrifying. still a night out. but everything fits in. still hard work. just a little easier. still a legend. just more legendary. chevrolet. making life's journey, just better.

i remember herwho wasurney, because she had a bracelet that had the names of her children. she asked me, 'doctor, am i going to be okay?' and i could not give her the answer that i wanted to give her. there is no excuse for why we don't have this under control at this point. joe biden listens to medical experts. he actually has a plan that does the things that we should have been doing many months ago. and joe biden is not going to let his ego get in the way

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all but one member of the joint chiefs of staff are now self-quarantining. puts the pentagon on some uncertain footing as the senate and the white house are also in uncertain territory. let's talk risk assessment with president trump's former national security adviser john bolton, author of "the room where it happened." ambassador, thank you for joining us. >> glad to be with you. >> what's your level of concern about the diminished white house as you have now about a dozen plus being affected by activities there. what does that do to the functioning day to day? >> well, i think as the number of people and the level of the people are affected even with advanced telecommunications, it makes a big difference in the west wing when that many people are knocked out.

and i have to say, it looks luke it's only going to continue to get worse. so, there should have been a much higher level of seriousness about this from the get-go. and unfortunately, they're now going to pay the consequences and so are the rest of us. >> and the president being hospitalized, coming back out, his team members going down. is this just about day to day efficiency? we see that a deal for the families out there seems to be gone in congress. the president has abandoned that negotiation. but what about keeping us safe? national security issues? >> well, i think the president has mishandled the coronavirus pandemic from the get-go, going back to january, if not before. and i think now, obviously we're caught literally one month from the election, and that's the only thing on the president's mind. so, i do think we are more vulnerable now to interference from our adversaries abroad than i would have expected. i would have thought they would

be more cautious even in an election period. but this disarray in the white house, i've never seen anything like it. i don't think there's a parallel historically even going back to the spanish flu in 1918. and as i say, i think the odds are it's only going to get worse. >> the white house is actually a case cluster. i don't know how you could get a more negative metaphor for your effectiveness in dealing with it. now we hear that a bunch of the joint chiefs are quarantining because of exposure. but isn't our military apparatus, especially at the tops levels just a huge network of personnel? i mean, does it matter that they're in quarantine. it's suboptimal, obviously, but does that make us unsafe? >> no, i don't think so. remember, these are people who are trained and plan to make their decisions literally under enemy fire, which could include biological weapons. so, it's inconvenient. but i think the most important

thing about the joint chiefs putting themselves in quarantine because they had come into contact with somebody who tested positive was how seriously they are taking it. this is the responsible way to act. and if the white house had done this -- and we know from any number of reports for months and months it was considered bad form to wear a mask. but if the white house had taken it as seriously as the pentagon is now, i don't think we would be in this disarray. >> it still is, right, ambassador? he just ripped off his mask in defiance and is once again saying something that is demons trably false, that covid is no worse than the flu. here's what i don't understand and i would love your take on it. if an outside force exposed our president and vice president to a virus, we would be at the brink of war. yet here it is the president's own recklessness that achieved

the same thing. how do you make sense of that? >> well, there is no way to make sense of it other than it's the president's obsession with his own image and what he wants to project. and this feeling that if he acts the way he wants the world to be, the world will be that way. it's a form of mind control is the only way i can put it. unfortunately, the coronavirus didn't get the memo. and the president's recklessness, and there's example after example of it, including the joyride out at walter reed over the weekend now is putting a lot of his staffers at risk. more importantly it sends awe signal to people all over the country that somehow this isn't serious. it contradicts what trump himself has said. he can't keep on a straight line here, and i think the pressure of being four weeks away from the election is now showing very clearly. >> at some point, if we don't

get the pandemic under control. if there isn't a more aggressive move by the federal government on testing, at what point does it become a threat to national security that we were just being too vulnerable for too long? >> well, i think we've been vulnerable for too long already. i think if we had acted early this would look a lot different than it does now. i personally think the real answer here is the vaccine, and i do think in that sense the federal government has tried to move quickly and safely at the same time. i think when we get the vaccine, this changes very, very dramatically. the white house itself, the experience there shows testing is not enough. they were testing all the time. >> maybe. >> it didn't stop the virus. >> maybe they were testing the virus. we keep asking for test results from last week. no word of where they are. it would be pretty easy to produce if they had them. ambassador john bolton. thank you very much for the reality of what keeps us safe,

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so, what about joe biden? fair question. look, can't ignore the president pushing us deeper into a pandemic as he walks infected through a white house case cluster, but biden is making a pandemic push of his own, and it is worth your getting a sense of the very different message he is putting out from captain contagious in chief. >> reporter: joe biden, near the site of one of the civil war's bloodiest battles, pressing his case for unity for today's divided nation. >> we must seek not to have our fists clenched by arms open. we have to seek not to tear each other apart, but seek to come together. >> reporter: biden traveling to gettysburg, pennsylvania, invoking the word of president abraham lincoln. >> today once again we are a house divided.

but that, my friends, can no longer be. >> reporter: the former vice president with a push for bipartisanship and overcoming racial divisions. and issuing a call to action. >> we must vote. we will vote. no matter how many obstacles are thrown in our way, because once america votes, america will be heard. >> reporter: with the coronavirus crisis still raging across the country, biden saying leaders should follow the science. >> wearing a mask is not a political statement. it's a scientific recommendation. we can't undo what has been done. we can't go back. we can do so much better. >> reporter: biden's trip took him to the critical battleground state of pennsylvania, while president trump is sidelined from the campaign trail with coronavirus. but just four weeks until election day, a new cnn election poll shows biden with his widest lead yet over the president nationwide. the democratic nominee ahead of trump with likely voters by 16 points.

biden's advantage fueled by support from older voters, a group trump won by 7 points in 2016, but now backing biden by 21 points. and the former vice president seeing an even bigger advantage among women work two-thirds of female voters favoring biden over trump. today, one of the democratic party's most revered women taking aim at the current president. >> they're stoking fears about black and brown americans, lying about how minorities will destroy the suburbs. what the president is doing is once again patently false, morally wrong, and yes, it is racist. >> reporter: in a 24-minute video, michelle obama making her closing argument for the election with her own pitch for unity. >> let's be very real -- america is divided right now, and a lot of people are being sold lies

from those who want to get rich or stay in power and sometimes both. as i said before, we must all empathize with those who might not look like us or vote with us. >> reporter: the former first lady urging undecided voters to vote their conscious. >> we cannot longer pretend that we don't know exactly who and what the president stands for. search your hearts. and your conscious. and then vote for joe biden like your lives depend on it. >> reporter: joe biden didn't mention president trump by name once in that speech in gettysburg, but shortly after he was quick to criticize the president for canceling those stimulus negotiations. biden argued the president turned his back on the very americans who need that relief. biden adding, worse yet, he never even really tried to get a deal for these americans. chris? >> arlette saenz. thank you very much. let's bring in two great minds in the state of play four weeks

out from the election. the wizard of odds, harry entin and phillip butch, national correspondent for "the washington post." come on the show more and i'll give you a nickname, too. let's look at the numbers. four weeks away from election day. 57% of likely voters biden. 41%, trump. now, let's look at this numerically and then analytically. harry, the numbers, you point to two key demographic groups that show a shift in this race from 2016. lay it out. >> yeah, it's too simple groups, right? it's voters 65 and older and it's white women. and if you look at those groups, trump won both of those groups back in 2016 in the final polls and right now, what do we see in we see that in fact among women overall, biden has this huge advantage and among white women specifically what you see is that joe biden -- last time around, donald trump won that group.

now you see joe biden up with that group by 12 points in average polls and senior citizens trump won it last time and biden is ahead with that group. two massive shifts. >> those are the numbers. philip you take it on. people say i've heard this before. clinton was up 15. why is this any different? your answer? >> if this poll result holds and other polls match, this things a the blowout. so it's worth taking things with a grain of salt. in 2016, yes, hillary clinton won the national popular vote, lost in swing states. but her lead went up and down, up and down over the course of the entire year. biden's has been rock steady. for example, there's no point in the last 150 days of the campaign where biden and trump were tied where as in each of the previous of elections there were days when they were tied. biden's low point in the polling average has never been less than five points above donald trump's

high point. the two are different. they're spaced apart, and that's the sort of thing you want the see if you're joe biden's campaign. that means people are locked in to where they are voting. >> in the last race we did see the president moving in the last four weeks. what was that about then, and could that happen now? >> no, i don't think -- sure, it could happen now, but there were a lot more undecided voters, a lot more third party voters than going on right now. trump just need to win the undecides, he has to take voters away from joe biden in order to do so. very different than four years ago. last thing i'll note is biden has been winning not just the last 150 days. he has been leading the last three years. he's just had a continuous lead. that's unlike what we saw in 2016. >> philip, you take an interesting look at this demographic. other than pissing off older people by painting joe's age as a function of him being one step

from the grave and another foot on a banana peel, the president constantly in his campaign, radical left, biden's going to be coopted, culture war. why would 65 and older be resonating better with biden than trump? >> it's a great question. i'm not sure we know. both sides are locked in, there aren't a lot of swing voters moving back and forth. the key demo i like to look at here is the voters who dislike both candidates. voters who dislike both candidates in 2016 went for trump by 17 points. now consistently they're backing biden by 20-plus points which shows president trump is not getting the benefit of the doubt from people like four years ago. >> well, he is the president so he has a record attached to him, even though he seems to be making it more biden's fault