a steadfast commitment to see the task through to completion. that's another indication where she's calling on the american people, get invested, vote, make it your constitution. she did the hard work to build a more inclusive constitution but it's all of us to keep the work going. we are out of time. i look forward to reading the book. i know it'll be released with the book "paving the way" thanks for being with us this morning. >> thank you so much. thanks all of you joining us. i'm poppy harlow. >> i'm jim sciutto. "newsroom" with john king starts right now. hello, everybody. top of the hour i'm john king in washington, thank you for sharing this important day with us. it's the last full week of the 2020 campaign it's an ominous moment in the fall coronavirus surge. the campaign trail is busy. headlined by three stops by president trump in pennsylvania. including a rally this hour.

the vice president is heading to minnesota, despite a coronavirus cluster in his office that would land you or me in quarantine. the white house said he tested negative this morning and insists he can campaign safely. the polling numbers are clear, joe biden's lead right now bigger than hillary clinton's lead eight days out in 2016. and a brand new batch of swing state polling tells us the story is this, the president needs a historic come back if he wants four more years. more than 60 million ballots already cast. more people have voted in 2020 than back in all of early voting in 2016. the coronavirus weighs heavily on how you vote and who you vote for. look at the numbers on the screen, they are bleak this hour and the trends say there's no ends in site. 60,000 cases on sunday, the second highest sunday since the

pandemic started. we start this week at a new high of cases per day, nearly 69,000 new infections a day on average right now. tough it out is the president's plan. and his claims of progress infuriate the experts that see no national span despite numbers that tell us the most difficult covid stretch is in front of us. the vice president's chief of staff is known for not wearing a mask, he's now infected. the president's chief of staff mocking joe biden for wearing a mask. that chief of staff, mark meadows, insists the president is not waving the white flag he had to say that today to clean up this message of surrender he sent sunday. >> we're not going to control the pandemic. we are going to control the fact that we get vaccines,

therapeutics and other mitigation. >> why aren't we controlling the pandemic? >> because it's a contagious virus. >> we are making efforts to contain it. >> by running all over the country and not wearing masks? >> let's look at the number. look at the 50 state trend map. 37 states, 37 of the 50 states now heading in the wrong direction. the president says tremendous progress. look, decide for yourself. you live here. you live here. 37 states now reporting more covid infections now than a week ago. 37. and you see six of them reporting 50% more new infections or more. 50% or more new infections this week than a week ago, wisconsin, alabama, vermont, california among them. one of the states that drove the summer surge. seven states this weekend reported new records for cases looking at the data. setting new records as we head

up the hill, michigan, illinois, colorado, alaska, nevada setting records. this spells it out. 17,000 new infections in june, up the hill we went to the summer surge, came back down to about 40,000 sunday was 60,000 sundays are traditionally low numbers, that's the second highest, friday we set a record for new infections, 87,857. experts say we're going up, 80,000 is going to be the new normal. if you look at the positivity map understand why. use this to highlight. 25% of coronavirus tests in iowa coming back positive, 21 in nebraska, 40% in south dakota, 29% in wyoming, 23% in idaho. this is where it's the worst, 24% alabama, 10% florida, arkansas, oklahoma. it is everywhere. worse in some places than others

but it is everywhere. sadly, sadly, right now, sunday was a low number still horrific, 340 americans reported dead yesterday from coronavirus but experts say the line is trending back up, something we need to keep an eye on and hope it trends down. watch the trend lines, hospitalizations going back up. if you look here, 11 states set records for hospitalizations this weekend. think about the positivity map, remember this part of the country, records for hospitalizations. 25, 21, 40. same spot, the high positivity rates are now having records for hospitalizations. so the kucountry is in a crisis. yesterday the white house chief of staff said we cannot control the virus. today, call this clean up. >> the only person waving awhite flag along with his white mask is joe biden. when we look at this, we're going to defeat the virus. we will not control it.

we are going to try to contain it as best we can. any suggestion that we're waving the white flag is certainly not in keeping with this president. you know him, he doesn't give up and he's not going to give up until americans are safe and we've defeated this virus. let's begin our conversation today. josh, you listen to the white house chief of staff there 37 a different message than he delivered just yesterday. there was a lot of frustration in the white house when mark meadows appeared to say yes, there's nothing we can do, we have to wait it out until we have a vaccine. sending a different message today but at the same time mocking joe biden for wearing a mask. >> mark meadows has been one of the fiercest critics of the measures to try to contain the spread of the virus. meadows pushed for in-person events he wanted the convention this summer, not forcing employees to wear masks, questioning dr. birx and dr.

fauci. mark meadows has not been in line with a lot of the public health experts. you saw the president today or yesterday saying covid, covid, people are tired of this, don't want to talk about this anymore. his message is not different from his chief of staff's, fatigue has set in, we've done what we can. it's time to live our lives. is to have large unmasked rallies, to continue to act as if nothing has happened. obviously that was cut into this weekend when five people around the vice president, including his personal aide, his chief of staff, his top political adviser who are, you know, all infected with the virus. . >> and so we can put that up and show it because the vice president is going to be back on the trail again today. he's off to minnesota. you get it, it's the final week of the campaign and they're trailing, but the vice president's chief of staff, advisers, three aides at least have tested positive. the vice president was in contact with all of them. he did test negative this

morning, the white house says he can get on a plane and travel. if that were you and me we would not be allowed to go in the office we would be in quarantine. >> the recommendation would be quarantine, yes. the vice president's team is monitoring his condition, he's being checked every day and he has not been around some of these folks for several days. he was around his chief of staff sooner than that, but a loot of the others not for several days and they think he's fine to travel. the recommendation is if you have close contact with someone you quarantine. >> let's listen to the president. this is in new hampshire yesterday. he has a tough map he lost new hampshire four years ago. the vice president is going to minnesota, states they lost narrowly four years ago because they expect to lose states they flipped red in 2016. they're looking for opportunities. but the president is saying things that contradict the numbers. listen. >> we are coming around, we're rounding the turn.

we have the vaccines, we have everything. we're rounding the turn. even without the vaccines we're rounding the turn. it's going to be over. >> he even corrected himself there. he said we have the vaccines and corrected himself because we don't have the vaccines yet because we are weeks or months away from mass discuss ttributi do you say we're rounding the turn when we had the two highest days of infections over the course of the pandemic. it does not compute. >> this has been the message of the president for many months. tried to down play the virus. in his defense he would say most people are doing okay, getting more therapeutics, more treatment but as he said, the numbers are going up, staggering by the day. at l lot of his rhetoric is not in line with what the american people are concerned with, a lot

of folks think it could get worse, 50% say they expect it to get worse. a lot of the president's advisers are trying to convince him to strike a bit of a different phone. he was hospitalized, taken by helicopter to walter reed when he came out they wanted him to strike a more empathic tone but if anything he's been more defiant since the hospitalization. and now he's mocking the news media's frequent coverage on the trail. he has not taken any different tone. in fact, he may be less empathic than he was. >> to your point some advisers wish he would change his tone, say it the way you said it, this is tough, hard, we're making progress with therapeutics, i need your help, social distance, wear a mask. if he talked like that, people would think he was taking it sere r seriously.

listen this is a few moments ago in allentown, pennsylvania. >> this guy doesn't leave his basement. he's a pathetic, candidate, i will tell you that. we're doing a great job. we are absolutely rounding the corner. other than the fake news wants to scare everybody we are absolutely rounding the corner. >> more than 200,000 americans were diagnosed with covid over the weekend. it's not fake news. you see the other numbers on your screen there. he's a pathetic candidate that's what he says of joe biden. we know one of the things that the president is furious about he doesn't think joe biden is a strong candidate but he's losing at the moment but we're doing a great job, rounding the corner, it's not a fact. >> the president's campaign frequently mocks joe biden for not having events and joe biden's folks will say it's because they're trying to follow

coronavirus protocol, staying safe. the president will be having three, four, five rallies a day. he loves these large crowds and add lags. they're saying the more people they see, the more optimistic they're feeling about the presidential race. obviously the polls show the president still behind. but the president wants to cast this narrative, the picture the country is back to normal. it's fine to come out, not wear events at these event -- masks at these events. and joe biden is taking a different tone, he does a few speeches here and there, he's not out all the time. the question will be in eight days what do american people want, do they think joe biden or the president has a better idea on how to handle the pandemic. >> without a doubt. he talks about taxes and spending, now it is which

example do you want? you're right. people watch it in the final eight days and make their choice in part based on how the two have decided to campaign. thank you, josh. contrast the president's all is well coronavirus message to what we are hearing and seeing across the country. look here, our utah affiliate reporting one hospital system is ten days from care rationing, meaning teams would decide who does and does not get treatment. and a federal team on the way to texas as icus hit capacity. most states are managing hospitalizations but former commissioner dr. scott gottlieb says that could change quickly. >> outside of states like wisconsin or iowa, most states have a lot of spread but aren't to the point they're pressed right now. that is going to change in the next two to three weeks. i think masks are one thing we could be doing.

we need to look at targeted mitigation, close settings we know spread is happening. >> joining me now is the director for the health security at johns hopkins. grateful for your time today. i want to put up the case trend, where we are right now, two days, friday and saturday, above 80,000 new infections. 60,000 on a sunday, second highest sunday during the pandemic. when you look at the numbers, the positivity rates, hospitalizations, what do you see when you look a week or two ahead? >> john, it looks like we're continuing to move in the wrong direction. i think if you look at what's happening across the midwest, the mountain west in particular, but other places as well. you mentioned texas, certain parts of texas, hospitals are filling up with covid patients. while it is true that there's been some improvement for the outcomes of individuals,

overall, when you add up all the sick people from covid, enough of them are sick enough to be in the hospital, in the intensive care unit but those hospitals will get fuller and fuller unless we change direction. the intensive care units will get fuller. you mentioned in utah they're talking about rationing care for people going into the icu. that would affect people not just with covid but people that need to go to the icu for other medical conditions. it's serious. >> it is. you look at the positivity rate, double digits in a lot of places, you hope it stays at 10, 11, 12 and doesn't double or triple like you see. but europe, listen here that has a lot of public health experts saying remember, back at the beginning you see the chart here. you see europe is the green line, the european union went up the hill first in march. you see them now, more cases per

1 million residents than the united states. if we were two or three weeks behind them then, will we be now in our climb? listen to this analysis. . >> i think we're looking forward to a number of record weeks in the very near future that will drive this daily rate above 100,000. i can see, if i'm looking across the world, looking at europe as a predictor of what will happen here as it was in the spring that there could be 200,000 cases. if you project forward, could mean up to a million deaths a year from now. it is a really dangerous situation. >> you run that by people at the white house and they call it alarmist. they say people are too fearful of the future, ride it out we'll have a vaccine soon enough. will we? >> well, we certainly hope we'll have a vaccine, one or more, hopefully by the end of the year but we don't know for sure. and even if we do, it will take

time to make enough doses to get to people, take time to get a second dose, take time to get immunity. so we have to go many months before the impact of a vaccine will be felt in a large way. probably the first quarter of 2021 before a vaccine can have a measurable impact on the overall population. we'll start in the winter time but it will take a while. in the meantime we have to change the direction. einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing every day and expecting different results. at this point we should see we have been on a rise for six weeks, the nurmber of deaths is going up, unless individuals and leaders in large numbers make changes we're going to continue to see the rise. >> leaders in large numbers would include the president of the united states or the vice president of the united states who's traveling right now even though his office has a cluster.

there's an election in eight days, i understand, so doing anything different would be admitting what you did in the past is not correct. but if we're talking about 100,000 cases a day, which some say could be days away, 120,000 new infections a day, what's the domino effect on the hospitalization issue you were talking about earlier and other issues to public health, medical supplies, capacities to handle that? >> i think what we saw in march was one major city going through that. we saw new york go into crisis with hospitals they couldn't care for the patients. the patients couldn't be in the icus but you had doctors who had never taken care of patients on a ventilator trying to take care of people in the hallways. if that happens in the united states we'll have hospitals in crisis around the country. in the springtime it was terrible but it was concentrated in some places. now it's distributed across many

more states. there could be a domino effect not only on supplies but also health care providers. we have the doctors and nurses we have, the intensive care specialists we have, we can't make more. if they are completely overwhelmed, care will start to be diminished to people in the hospital and who are very seriously ill. >> dr. ingles, grateful for your insights. it's important to get the smart context to help people think about what lies ahead. i want to show you live pictures. this is the president 234 allentown, pennsylvania he has three stops in pennsylvania. that's proof the president knows he's in deep trouble. ♪

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to battle ground pennsylvania now. you see the live pictures there. president trump speaking in allentown, the first of three pennsylvania rallies today. just this morning new poll numbers that show the president is well behind in a state that is crucial to his comeback hopes. jeremy diamond is at the rally and joins us now. three stops in a state that was so critical four years ago, but if you're doing three stops that tells you you're behind. >> reporter: no question, john. this is a state that campaign officials have told me over the last couple of weeks with be this is a state the president is going to visit most often before election day because his campaign sees the state of pennsylvania as so critical to their path to 270 votes. many experts believing the state of pennsylvania is the tipping point, right now the president is down 6 to 7 points against

joe biden. this is a state where the polls were wrong in 2016, but even if they are as wrong as they were back in 2016, joe biden would still eke out a victory by about 1 percentage point if they were wrong by the same margin in 2016. what we're hearing from the president here in allentown, he just took the stage, and the first thing he talked about right out of the state is the energy issue and issue of fracking which is a key issue here in pennsylvania, talking about joe biden's comments in the last debate where he said hoe would phase out subsidies for oil companies and joe biden has pledged to allow for no new fracking permits on public lands. one thing we should note, john, this election, even in the state of pennsylvania isn't going to swing just on the issue of fracking and on the issue of energy. it's also going to swing on the issue of the coronavirus

pandemic and health care. the president just last night in the 60 minutes interview that aired said he hopes the supreme court will overturn obamacare, despite the fact the president does not have a plan and his administration has struggled to rein in the coronavirus pandemic. so those issues will weigh on the minds of the voters here in pennsylvania. >> fascinating. jeremy diamond on the trail, thank you for the live report. follow the candidates this week and the money as well. team trump's refrain is remember 2016, yes, he was trailing then too and he pulled off a remarkable comeback, cracking the blue wall and flipping pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin from blue to red. new numbers tell us 2020 is not 2016 and the comeback is a lot steeper. with us now barry burden. thank you for your time. you heard jeremy diamond the

president is in pennsylvania, pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin have been the three most spoken words in politics since 2016. if you look at -- this is michigan up first, biden plus ten, pennsylvania next, biden plus eight. wisconsin biden plus nine. in all three states joe biden is above 50%, 52 in michigan and pennsylvania, 53 wisconsin. take us inside the numbers and what you see as most significant. >> well, i think the lead is substantial, these are bigger leads than hillary clinton had in most of the polling in these states four years ago. it reflects a change from the surveys our center conducted last month where biden's lead was four to six points across the three states now we're talking 8 to 10 point leads across the states. i think it reflects a build up of support in early votes. biden is far ahead in those who

have already cast ballots. trump is likely to lead with those who vote on election day but not enough to make up for the big lead that biden has built the last couple weeks. >> with this record early voting, that's one of the key d dynamics and challenges for you and me, count the early votes. in michigan you have joe biden already voted up 52 points. you say the president is up 22. biden's lead is bigger in pennsylvania is bhigger. same in wyoming, biden plus 47, those who haven't voted trump 18. so trump has the late day, election day vote but you're saying if nothing else changes it's not big enough? >> that's right. it is one of the uncertainties of this election cycle just how many trump voters who are out

there waiting and who are reliable and will show up on election day for him. his success in these three states in 2016 was partly the late breaking movement of undecided voters in his direction. that could still happen, polls are a snapshot in time but right now you would rather be joe biden building up the large margins and locking in the vote as the surveys are being done. these are surveys of people who have already voted and really relying on additional voters who have not yet shown up and hoping you can turn them out is a riskier strategy for trump. >> joe biden's lead is growing at the end, i was reading this morning. but we look at the gender gap, the support among demographic groups it's the stability that jumps out. we had more volatility in 2016 back in august, your poll three states had biden 47, 38 among

women now 58, 38. when you look one of the characteristics is the stability. if there's not volatility it helps you trust your numbers, right? >> you're right. one thing that makes our surveys different from the other surveys you see in the news is we reinterview the same respondents from one month to the next. there's almost no change among those who wanted trump a month or two months ago, 98% are still with him. the same is true on biden's side. where biden is making up some ground or widening his advantage is beginning over people who didn't vote in 2016 or who voted for third party candidates in 2016. they have helped contribute to his margin. as you mentioned, the gender gap has been very stable. that's a problem for trump because the gap is unbalanced. biden is winning by double digits, 15 or 20 points among

women. trump is winning among men but smaller margins. the number of women and men in the electorate is the same. so the asymmetry there is to biden's advantage and doesn't leave wiggle room for trump to claw back to victory in these three states. >> they were key in 2016, they are again. we'll watch them closely. thank you for your time. >> glad to be with you. pfizer starts testing his potential coronavirus vaccine on children. that's next. (upbeat music) - [narrator] this is kate.

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one of the drug companies racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine, pfizer now expanding trials to include children as young as 12. that's a critical step in testing the efficacy of a vaccine candidate. elizabeth cohen has been tracking vaccine development. how big of a deal is it? >> it is a big deal. the pediatrics academic has been

urging that children be involved in the trials. so let's take a look at the trials. this pfizer trial with children has been approved by the fda. they have advised the childrens and teens into two groups, the older 16, 17, their responses may be similar to adults and a younger group of 12 to 15. there are a lot of reasons for testing a vaccine in children one is covid kills children and stu studies show that children do spread covid to household members. even though they get it less frequently than adults do, they spread it to adults. also children 10 and older may spread it as officiefficiently adults do. over time there's been this thought that children don't get coronavirus, they do, and it is

a big deal. >> elizabeth cohen thank you so much. it's a legacy day for the president, a supreme court vote, and yet coronavirus casting a shadow even over this day. when i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. ♪ the support we've had over the last few months has been amazing. i have a soft spot for local places. it's not just a work environment. everyone here is family. gonna go ahead and support him, get my hair cut, leave a big tip. if we focus on our local communities, we can find a way to get through this together. thank you. ♪ if you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. get out and about and support our local community. we thought for sure that we were done. and this town said: not today.

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legacy win. the confirmation of judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court. justice barrett will be the third trump pick on the high court and by replacing the liberal justice ruth bader ginsburg this will create a clear 6-3 conservative majority. reshaping the courts has been the obsession of senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell and this is a dose of gloating. >> a lot of what we've done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. it won't be able to do much about this. for a long time to come. >> the short term politics, though, are more dicey. the barrett confirmation is part of the coronavirus safe tiff debate and a health care case on the court docket in the days ahead is fraught with risk for republicans. manu raju joins me now. a big day on capitol hill but like everything else a complicated day. >> we expect her to be confirmed

tonight. only one republican expected to break ranks, susan collins of maine. she'll be confirmed basically by a straight party line vote, one person's vote is not needed but who also may be here today is mike pence, the vice president, president of the senate. he has a role of breaking a tie if it comes to that. pence indicated he still wants to be here to preside over the chamber. it's uncertain if he's going to carry through with that plan but that's causing concerns among democrats after the news that several of his aides have tested positive for the aids and top leaders wrote a letter saying with five of your aides testing positive for covid-19 it's not a risk worth taking. we ask you to reconsider. not only would your presence be a clear violation of centers for disease control and presentation guidelines it would also be a

violation of common decency and courtesy. republicans are not concerned. they're saying as long as pence follows the proper guidelines that's fine with them if he appears. even mitt romney told me he sits at the back of the chamber so he said i feel safe if mike pence were to come. but mitt romney went to the floor, he's supporting the domination, defended the nomination but also raised concerns around the distrust around institutions around washington, including the distrust if fed by this president. >> what a message it sends when the president accepts the word of the russian president rather than the conclusions of our intelligence agencies. >> the senate is expected to adjourn for the elections after this vote tonight that means the unfinished business, including whether they can approve a stimulus deal is going to have to wait until after the elections. but this victory republicans are going to celebrate and hope it's enough to keep the majority here, john. >> it'll be a big win tonight

and none of us know the message the american people will send before they gather again. joan, justice barrett is not going to get a peaceful, calm, couple traffic cases transition. the high court, as soon as she is on the bench, is going to deal with giant cases, including the future of obamacare. >> that's right, john. things are happening fast today and they'll happen fast tomorrow, this week and next week. obamacare is up one week from the election, november 10th, a major test of the future of obamacare and coverage for people with preexisting conditions like cancer and diabetes. even before that, she will be in a position to act on so many election related cases. she could even break a tie that could make a difference in terms of state ballot disputes. right now pending before these justices are cases from wisconsin, north carolina,

pennsylvania, all familiar battleground states. p and once we get past the election, i presume there will be some fallout with ballot disputes. but then not just will she look at obamacare, but there is a major religious liberty case coming up and a census dispute. so she will be joining a court where her vote will really matter. she could be breaking ties, but she could also very early on be deciding the law of the land. john? >> consequential from day one. joan grateful for the insights there. you have a couple busy weeks ahead for yourself as well. and coming up for us, why president trump is being compared to president carter.

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john harwood is joining me now. interesting dynamic. you're right. the 2016 experience has people reluctant to look at the numbers this time and believe them. >> exactly, john. there are a lot of parallels with 1980. that was a year when american voters decided that their president was not really up to the job. then his problem was the iran hostage crisis most particularly. now people -- voters have reached the same judgment about president trump. in carter's case, once they were satisfied that ronald reagan was an acceptable alternative, they flooded to him at the end of the campaign. the same is true in this case, except that joe biden has held a lead consistently but here is why people are reluxant to go with that comparison. first of all, polarization has left the president with a strong

political base that is principally blue collar voters have stuck with him. secondly, states were distinct from one another so a 44-state landslide is very unlikely. hard to imagine joe biden achievia. finally, the ptsd. people examined hillary clinton to win and she didn't win and narrow victories for the incumbent president in pennsylvania, wisconsin, and michigan. people are looking at these polls show a big national lead and smaller lead in the battleground states and other battle grounds in north carolina and florida. people are reluctant to go out on a limb and make an early prediction. some patterns are suggestive of the possibility of a big democratic win and because the pandemic is now peaking, john, that gives some real downside risk for republicans who are

counting on a big in-person election day vote. the more people frightened of the pandemic the more difficult it is going to be to pull that off. >> i think that is a very important point, especially people should receipted this piece about the impact on those senate races. we will see the impact here not only on the white house in the building behind you but me in the capitol dome. i recommend everybody read that great piece. the dow is diving. nearly 700 points as fears over the case count rise and failure of stimulus negotiations. 133 million americans have pre-existing conditions

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this just in. take you live look at wall street now. dow down about 700 points and investors are rattled by the surge in coronavirus cases and talks for relief package in washington are go nowhere at the

moment and millions of struggling families could use government happy. european markets in the red across the board today. that part of the world facing a major covid surge right now. hello to our viewers in the united states and around the world. thank you for sharing your day with us. president in pennsylvania this hour. part of the trump campaign's battleground focus today. the vice president heading to minnesota. disregarding warnings from doctors that it is not safe for him to be around crowds. that after exposure to coronavirus, a cluster right now in the vice president's own office. the president says in tweets this morning, that he is winning and winning big. >> amazing. amazing attendance. and amazing poll numbers. we have poll numbers that i'll be talking about up there that have been very extraordinary. i think we are leading in pennsylvania. i think we will win