i'm jim acosta. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next capitol police calling for all hands on deck as an internal memo warns about an uptake of violent rhetoric. plus a florida judge deals ron desantis another major loss shooting down his ban on mask mandates and the fbi stepping up it investigation into death threats against poll workers.

the chilling messages he's getting just for doing his job. let's go "outfront". good evening. i'm erin burnett. all hands on deck. capitol police are calling on all officers to be prepared for an upcoming right wing rally on the capitol grounds as cnn obtains an internal memo warning of an alarming uptick on violent rhetoric, the rally that will be september 18th. a rally that is in support specifically of the january 6th insurrectionists and the violent rhetoric includes images used by white supremacist and details that one leader of the extremist proud boys group is encouraging followers to attend the rally. speaker nancy pelosi tonight for one is sounding the alarm and demanding security briefings. >> we intend to have the integrity of the capitol be in tact. these people are coming back to praise the people who were out

to kill. out to kill members of congress. >> america, of course, watched in horror. we all did together on january 6th as trump supporters stormed the capitol threatening to hang people, threatening to overturn what trump's own homeland security called the most secure election in history and a second rally with the same people. trump's allies are in this and the convicted january 6th rioters are actually political prisoners. >> this january 6th defendants are being treated like political prisoners of war. >> they're being treated worse there than the blood thirsty terrorists at guantanamo. >> these are not unruly or dangerous criminals. >> not unruly or dangerous?

they beat officers with anything they had on them, a hockey stick, flag pole, fire exti extinguisher. police officers died. capitol police memo notes that a lot of the disturbing chatter about next week's rally centers around the death of ashli babbitt, the rioter shot and killed while trying to climb through the broken window. her family's attorney is invited to speak at the rally. they want to turn babbitt into a ma martor like trump has done. >> who is the person that shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman? >> the person that shot ashley babbitt, boom the right through the head. no reason for that. why isn't that person being opened up? that war on the other side, the person that did the shooting would be strung up and hung.

okay? >> of course, again, police officers died. melanie is "outfront" on capitol hill. capitol hill police are worried about a possible repeat of january 6th in just days. >> reporter: that's right, erin. law enforcement officials are growing increasingly worried for violence and unrest on this september 18th rally and lawmakers are amp lifying the warnings they are continuing to embrace donald trump's lies about the election could lead to a january 6th repeat. a memo reviewed by cnn warns there is an uptick and noticeable uptick in violent rhetoric surrounding this rally. there is also particularly heated discussions involving the shooting of ashley babbitt, the rioter that tried to storm the capitol and members of the proud boys encouraged followers to attend. meanwhile, counter protests are being planned. so this memo concludes it is not unreasonable to plan for potential violent altercations. now, all of this comes as capitol security is underway and

preparations are fully underway on capitol hill, the capitol police are planning to present their security plans very soon to the capitol police for approval. that means the temporary fencing could come back around the capitol complex and lawmakers are set to receive security briefings from the capitol police, as well, in the coming days including nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy. the good news is the vent is taking place on a saturday when the house is in recess so far fewer people around and this event has had similar events in the past by the same group and it does not atrabltract as many people as they thought and didn't turn violent. the capitol hill community is very on edge after the deadly incidents and bomb scares so nobody is leaving anything to chance, erin. >> thank you very much. melanie mentioned crowd size. hold that thought for a moment because we'll ask the former deputy director of the fbi why crowd size may no matter most.

i want to go to pete aguilar, a member of the house select committee investigating the january 6th insurrection. appreciate your time. you know, how worried are you that what you experienced on january 6th and what we saw on tv but you were there experiencing could happen again at this rally? >> well, we're fearful for the capitol community, that includes everyone that works in the u.s. capitol from our brave capitol police officers who defended democracy to those folks who are essential to us on capitol hill and work each and every day. we're concerned about the safety of everyone in and around the capitol hill. so we're going to take every precaution. i know the committees of jurisdiction have had a meeting about this and the chairs of the committee of jurisdiction and house administration is briefed on this and you heard the clipperl earlier indicating the

leaders will be invited to her office to hear the latest briefing and know there are exercises and planning that is also underway so the capitol police is well aware of this activity. >> all right. so the organizer of this event is a person named matt brainard, a trump supporter and campaign advisor for trump, a person that testified alongside rudy giuliani to allege voter fraud in arizona that didn't occur and a person hours ago said this to steve bannon about the upcoming rally. >> there is no threat to anybody from our peaceful protest on behalf of the political prisoners who have been persecuted as a result of their participation in the january 6th rallies. this protest is not about elections. it's not about what won. it's not about voter fraud. it's about the abuse of these political prisoners and the scapegoating of them for this narrative. they're trying to call our protest on september 18th insurrection 2.0 but my question is when was insurrection 1.0?

>> okay. so this isn't about the election. there wasn't even an insurrection on january 6th. what do you even say to that? >> look, i don't know where to start but those are clearly the trump talking points that many sadly, many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been parroting. so this is about january 6th. this is about pushing back on the myth of january 6th. that there was nothing to see here, that these folks didn't have the intend to hurt members of congress. they caused multiple deaths and like you said, they grabbed everything they could possibly grab to assault police officers, and so our job is to make sure that we don't forget that and on the january 6th committee, we're very mindful of that that we make sure this never happens again, this threat to our democracy and assault on democracy and so, that's why we're going to continue to do our work. we're going to continue to seek

the truth, but here, obviously, next week we want to make sure that folks are safe in the capitol complex and capitol community. >> you heard melanie reporting the fencing could be coming back. obviously, when it was there completely changed what, you know, what the capitol stood for. it was hard for people to get in. it came down. if it goes back up that would indicate how seriously they take this rally. based on the warnings you understand, do you think they should bring it back now? >> i'll leave those decisions to the u.s. capitol police and the capitol police board is the entity that's responsible and will make the decisions including the architect of the capitol and sergeant at arms. that's a little bit of a structure who makes these decisions but with the advice and consultation of the capitol police, that's how they arrive at these and will make the decision to best protect the capitol. i'm confident that the new leadership is taking everything into account and working with our law enforcement partners in

order to protect the capitol building. we need to make sure this doesn't happen again and i think i speak on behalf of a lot of members who want to make sure that this doesn't happen and that we protect the capitol. >> all right. appreciate your time. congressman aguilar, thank you. i want to go to andrew mccabe, the former deputy director of the fbi. i have a lot i want to ask you, director. in the memo they say there is multiple instances of white s supremacy used. one leader of the proud boys encouraging followers to show up. do you take this seriously? >> absolutely. absolutely, erin. i take it very seriously if i was still sitting back at fbi headquarters. many of us had concerns about what the fbi thought about the intelligence and chatter and social media talk they were seeing prior to january 6th. the indicators are for this event they are taking that very seriously and they should. it's always hard to sift out

that sort of talk to determine what the actual operational plans and what are comments from people trying to mouth off and say something stupid. you look to those symbols of white supremacy. you look to the indicators of violence. you look to see where that is coming from, people you know have engaged in operational activity in the past and that definitely elevates your concern about that sort of stuff. so it's good to see them taking it seriously. >> the memo does talk about this chatter increasing after the officer that fatally shot babbitt identified himself and spoke out why he felt compelled to shoot. here he is. >> i had been yelling and screaming as loud as i was please, stop, get back, get back. stop. we were ultimately hoping your commands would be compiled with, and unfortunately, they were not. she was posing a threat to the united states house of representatives. >> this is a man whose been repeatedly attacked by former president trump for doing his

job, accusing him, even though he was cleared in a full investigation, accuses him of being a murderer. some are calling this rally the justice for ashley babbitt rally. when you put that together, how worried you police may be the target of violence? >> there is no question, erin, the organizers of this rally knows who are reflecting back to the ashley babbitt situation and doing that because they know that narrative really necereson with this community of extremists and those claims and talk about this capitol police officer really is a motivating point for extremists really focused on anti-government grievance and what they perceive as government over reach. they're doing it to light the crowd on fire and the concern for the capitol police and metropolitan police is to be prepared if that fire ignites. >> so i mentioned -- hold that thought on how many people attend. who knows. there is an indication there

could be 500. recent events organized by the same group has lower attendance than expected. your might say well if it says 500 and you get 100, not a big deal but you don't share that feeling. you said a crowd much smaller than 500 could be a big problem. tell me why. >> because there is really two elements to this that concern me. it's quantity and quality. right? quantity, absolutely crowd size is a very important thing. we saw that on january 6th. the defenses on the capitol as minimal as they were were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. the other factor is quality. i'll take a quiet peaceful crowd of 500 over a crowd of 100 hard core right wing, white supremacist extremists any day. those folks, even if gathered in small r numbers, if they are intent on acting, if they are inclined to engage in violence, that could present a much bigger problem for security

professionals. there is really two factors you have to consider there. >> director mccabe, thank you. appreciate it. >> thanks, erin. next, president biden expected to push for new vaccine mandates and testing in a major speech as they're billing it. how far could he actually go? we return to one town in america where the vaccination rate is low, incredibly low, 27%. how come? >> i do not want the vaccine. >> i ain't taking that. ain't taking it. >> i don't like people trying to push a shot on me or something else because i'm as bull headed a fellow as you've ever seen. >> the fbi reportedly stepping up the investigation into death threats targeting officials. i'll talk to one florida official that received this message. >> time is running out, richard. we're coming after you.

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protects them so it shouldn't be hard to say the science says put them in a mask. >> this comes as the judge in florida rules against governor ron desantis again allowing schools in that state to implement mask mandates despite desantis' opposition. "outfront" is dr. jonathan reiner who advised the medical team under president bush. i want to start with that, a judge stepping in to allow mask mandates in florida schools going against governor desantis. the governor begging chiparents give their children masks. this should be common sense 18 months into the pandemic. >> right. what we've seen in recent weeks is just a massive explosion in the number of pediatric cases. in the last week, there were a all almost a quarter million kids contracted covid-19 and as we heard in the introduction to this piece, kids are sitting ducks. no child under 12 years old in

the united states can get vaccinated and not all teachers in the room are vaccinated. kids are highly susceptible so we need to mask them up. places like texas, i've seen 50,000 kids contract the virus. school districts all over the country had to close. masking seems to be common sense. >> i was amazed and appalled only 72% of the teachers in new york city are fully vaccinated. it was shocking to me, frankly, that it is so low. so president biden is preparing to address much of this in a major speech tomorrow, doctor, so apparently he'll present a six-point plan to end the pandemic which is most than we'll digest but go through a detail but not put out there including mandates for vaccines, testing. he's still not going to endorse a federal vaccine passport. do you think that is a mistake? >> yeah, it's a big mistake. at the very onset of this administration, very outset,

administration vocally passed on some sort of official documentation of vaccination status. they just thought that would unduly politicize vaccinations. what we found is a really strong need to have an official way to document vaccination. businesses want it. you know, airlines should want it. we need a way that can't be just sort of easily counter fitted with a simple card. we need a national way. imagine if you got vaccinated and were issued a qr code to show to any business or employer that wanted to know you were vaccinated but we don't have that, we should have that. >> today maryland governor larry hogan authorized booster shots for anyone over 65 years old in a care facility. he said the reality here, his quote for several weeks states had to operate without clear guidance regarding booster shots. the guidance is confusing and contradictory. but all the evidence makes it

clear we cannot afford to delay. i mean, what is going on here? the white house confirmed to kaitlan collins tonight that president biden hasn't gotten his booster even though he's 78 years old and got the second dose months ago. he's exactly in the category of people they said should be getting another shot so if you were advising the president, what would you tell him? >> if i were advising the president, i would have already boosted him. the data is pretty clear. over a period of about -- after about six months, the efficacy of these vaccines wanes and probably the group at biggest risk for an adverse outcome are the elderly. prior to vaccinations, that was the largest number of deaths were in the elderly but 80% of all deaths occurred in people in age 65 years old. the president fits into this category. we need to boost the elderly. israel is doing it and shown data that suggestions you can

increase the efficacy against delta from where it is now about 40% after two shots to 86% in the elderly and really no time to waste. there is -- there needs to be more of a sense of urgency in getting the booster shots out to the highest risk people in this country and i believe the elderly are the people at highest risk. >> thank you very much, dr. reiner. next, we'll take you to a town where vaccination rates are low, incredibly low and conspiracy theories about the vaccine are, of course, incredibly high. >> i ain't taking your medicine. not -- i'll take what they give him but i'm not taking yours. [ laughter ] >> he took the vaccine, though. >> i don't know that. >> former president obama campaigning tonight in california's recall election. >> your vote could be the difference between protecting our kids and putting them at risk.

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tonight, it's almost like a plague. cnn is visiting the ozarks where covid is blazing through the towns. talking to vaccine skeptics about their staunch refusal to get vaccinated despite the deadly surge. >> the spike is a little shocking. it's really raging here. >> everybody is scared. everybody is coming down with it. it's almost like a plague. >> i have both shots of the vaccine and people just acted like it doesn't help.

it bothers me sometimes that people just act like covid is a big joke. i always want to say well, why don't you just come right up here to the cemetery and i'll show you my husband's gave and i can show you it's no joke. >> reporter: over the five days we spent in carter county, missouri it felt like covid was closing in around us. the positivity rate is 32%. some people we wanted to interview told us they were just exposed or too sick to talk. we first came in october 2020 when covid was starting to surge in rural america. when we heard one of the diners we interviewed people in closed for covid, we wanted to come back and see what had changed. by the end of the spring, many thought covid was over, but in the past few weeks, it's raged through town. the vaccination rate is very low with only 27% fully vaccinated. >> the overwhelming majority of our patients admitted to the hospital with clinically severe

covid are unvaccinated. i didn't realize how unvaccinated we were, i guess, that's my fault. i didn't continue to push as hard as i should have to get people vaccinated because i thought everybody was because the virus and disease was abating but i was wrong. it came back like a brush fire. are you vaccinated? >> no, but it will be. i was skeptical of it until i watched all this happen. >> reporter: jim's wife ruth fought cancer for 12 years but covid killed her in eight days. he says the doctor told her not to take the vaccine because of her chemo. when did your wife die? >> july the 20th. i talked to her up until sunday when she died and she said this is bad. she said you-all need the shot. i think she right. >> reporter: last time we came here the debate was over masks and it had gotten very

political. >> we sit in the coffee shop and watch people walk in the door and see a mask and say democrat. >> reporter: later that fall there was a covid surge in the area but the health center says this wave is much worse. after just two days of school this august, about 20 kids tested positive. five days later, almost a quarter of students were under quarantine. the preschool had to close for two weeks. people in town were gossiping who had it and where they got it and they'd all seen our last story. >>. last story you did, i kind of thought it was all bull myself. >> reporter: tell me why? >> that's the way people are here. i think people here try to take care of each other. they don't know what to talk about and talk about covid. they need to walk through the covid ward. that will change your mind. >> reporter: jim admits some people are pretty set in their views. >> a good friend of mine, he hasn't had the shot but everywhere he goes, if he goes anyplace, he wears a mask and he's probably one of the best guys i know, but you're not going to change anything about

him. maybe you ought to interview him. >> reporter: would he talk to us? >> yeah, but you probably wouldn't like what he would tell you. >> reporter: that's okay. >> let me get my phone. >> hello? >> hey, i'm surrounded. i need you to come down here. i'm serious. >> what are you surrounded by? >> a bunch of women. >> okay. i'll be right there. >> all right. hey, they're going to interview you. >> oh, no, they ain't. >> yeah, yeah, come on. >> can i sit down there by you? >> reporter: why do you not want the vaccine? >> i ain't taking that shit. ain't taking it. i don't like people trying to push a shot on me or something else because i'm as bull headed a fellow as you've seen. >> reporter: last fall covid put him in the hospital for seven days. >> i was on everything they had. steroids, full drip, plasma from people that had covid, drugs that they give my president

trump and they finally burned it out of me. >> reporter: what's the difference between the vaccine and the drugs you took like regeneron? >> well, i would have took anything. i wouldn't have mattered what it was. >> reporter: but why would you trust regeneron and not the vaccine? >> am i going to have to -- [ laughter ] >> i don't know. >> well, the one thing is they shafted my president. they would have had the vaccine, already had it already had it but they wouldn't give it to him because they know he would be reelected so they had to swindle around and scale around and keep it from him just as soon as the election was over and he got it. i ain't taking your medicine. i'll take what they give him but i'm not taking yours. >> reporter: he took the vaccine, though. >> he might have.

i don't know that. >> i think they give him the regeneron. >> reporter: they did give him that but he did take the vaccine. >> later on probably, yeah. i'm not saying he didn't. i don't know that. that's what pissed me off and i'm not taking it because i'm that bull headed. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: there is no evidence for whalen's theory but he wasn't alone in his skepticism. have you thought about getting your vaccine? >> no way. >> reporter: how come? >> i don't want to get sick. >> reporter: you think the vaccine would make you more sick? >> probably. it made my mom sick. >> reporter: okay. you mean when she got the -- >> well, she got the vaccine in february. >> reporter: and she got sick on monday with covid -- maybe covid? >> yeah. >> reporter: is he going to get tested? >> probably not. she's staying home and i'm bringing her groceries and doing whatever i can away from her. >> reporter: yeah. >> one of her friends tested positive and she had been with him so more than likely.

>> i'm behind right now because i was down for about a week and a half being sick and i don't care. i got it. i told everybody, hey, i had covid. if you don't want to get around me, don't get around me. i have it. >> reporter: did you have the vaccine? >> no. >> reporter: why not? >> there is not enough research on it. i'm not totally against it. if i have to take it and it will help me in the future and not hurt me, yeah, i may take it. >> reporter: are you vaccinated? >> i am not. >> reporter: why not? >> i just haven't got vaccinated. >> reporter: okay. >> had a lot of people around me had it. i just haven't never got vaccinated. around here, we're pretty country folk and it's hard to get people to do something they don't understand completely or they don't feel the need to. >> reporter: but are you in that category? >> well, i guess. i don't really get deep with ya but i believe if the good lord

wants me right now, it doesn't matter if i take a vaccine or i don't. i know a lot of people say well, he gave you common sense and you ought to go get the shot, but let's just, you know, just the way i look at things. >> i don't want to ever give anybody an excuse for doing something like not getting vaccinated, but the reasons do harken to someone who has, you know, been told they're a dumb hill billy all their life by the rest of the country. that is not an excuse but part of the reason. i don't know that we're oppressed or disenfranchised, i don't know if we deserve to feel that way here but we're a flyover state. in a social situation where peer pressure is so hard, we've had a lot of trouble to try to get people vaccinated. to break out of that peer group is very hard for people. >> reporter: has anyone wanted

to get vaccinated in secret? >> well, yeah. absolutely. >> reporter: tell me what they say? >> when they're in my office and say i don't want to get vaccinated and this is why. it usually at the very best a fallacious reason, we have set up things where we can sneak one in your arm wherever you need to do it because that's our goal. >> reporter: it's hard but not impossible. more people got the vaccine after two local kids in their 20s were hospitalized with covid earlier this summer. last year, we talked to brian who was pretty cavalier about covid. >> i guess if i get it and it kills me, it's slow walking inside singing for the family. >> reporter: what would you put on your tome stone? >> didn't wear a mask. >> reporter: it took convincing but he agreed to talk to us again and tell us what happened since. >> no one feels like they can trust the government. it not my fault nobody is wearing their mask. it's not my fault nobody is taking the vaccine. it's the government's fault.

>> reporter: did you get your vaccine? [ laughter ] >> reporter: did you get the vaccine? >> doesn't matter whether i got the vaccine or not. coronavirus doesn't care who you are. >> reporter: i know. >> whether you think you're a big tough guy or whether you're anything. i doesn't matter. if you get it, it can kill you. i don't want my wife to have to wonder when they put you in a medical induced coma and stick a tube down your throat is he going to come back out of that? that's why i got a vaccine. >> reporter: ellie reed, cnn. >> thanks for that amazing report. a georgia election official threatened and his staff called racial slurs for doing their job, and a leading republican contender in california's recall election cutting a campaign

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tonight, the fbi stepping up the investigation into death threats against election workers in fulton county. this is according to richard baron who met with investigators seeking more information about threats to him like this and i will warn you that what you're about to hear just one of many threats that he got is disturbing. >> 234 years ago the founding k caucasian fathers of america gave us a second amendment. time is running out, richard. we're coming after you and every mother [ bleep ]er that stole this election with our second amen amendment. you will be served lead. >> that was one of many in the flood of threats came in after

former president trump singled out baron at a rally in december and tried to tie him to a debunked conspiracy theory they pulled out suit cases full of probiden ballots during a water pipe break in atlanta. >> if you just take the crime of what those democrat workers were doing and by the way, there was no water main break. >> okay. i want to go to richard baron, the election's director in fulton county. let me start with the meeting you had with the fbi as part of their investigation into the threats made against you and others in your office. what do you understand about the investigation at this point? >> well, i think what they are aiming to do is to look at all of the threats that were received post november all the way through this summer. i know that not only me but other people on my staff have received threats all the way into the summer and i know

that's happened around the country, as well. >> so i want to talk about that. obviously, your tenure has had controversy. you barely survive to oust you by a bipartisan county board of commissioners. no matter what you deal with, none of it excuses the threats you received like this one. >> quite obvious to anybody with half a brain there was a lot of fraud. i demand since y'all work for us, that y'all do something and if you don't, i guess what is it tar-and feather? is it hanging for treason? oh, boy, you better run. that's all i got to say. >> i mean, how dangerous is it right now for you to even do your job when you're getting calls like that? >> well, i think what you have to do is just focus on going to work every day and doing what you're supposed to do and try to ignore the distractions. i know that, you know, listening

to those calls now it is a little bit easier to hear them now than it was in the thick of things between the november election and our january senate run off and i think a lot of my staff that's predominantly black staff and they -- the "n" word was flying around with impunity on calls they received almost daily for a few months. >> talk to me about that. you say your office is predominantly americans. what would happen? they would pick up the phone and people would be seeing these horrible racist things and from my understanding, tell me, richard, it went further than that. people had people coming to their houses? >> yeah, a lot of the calls dealt with motorcycle gangs on their way to our offices to shoot us all in our offices and seats. we also had a couple members of my staff were visited at home by

people at night at their doorway. another lady had her grandma visited because they thought she was there. said they were going -- they wanted to make a citizens arrest and tried to push their way into her grandmother's house. >> so there must have been times you were truly scared for your life, for your family. >> well, i think mostly i was more concerned with my staff because, you know, i think they're the ones that are in the trenches doing the work with regard, it was easier for me to get police protection than some of the other staff because they may live outside of the county and then it becomes more complicated to arrange for police protection and i'm -- my job requires me to live within fulton county. >> all preciate your time, rich, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> i want to go to ben, a republican elections lawyer with

nearly four decades of k experienced and launched a defense network for officials like richard baron that received these threats. so you hear richard baron talk about the death threats he received and i played a couple of them. there is countless more where that came from. he's talking about motorcycle gangs threatening to shoot them in their seats and showing up a at their homes. how does hearing stories like this affect your decision to get involved? >> well, very much. i co-chaired a presidential commission a few years ago with bob bower, who is president obama's attorney. we got to know election officials on the state and local level. they do a tremendous job in calling balls and strikes in our elections. you have to have people who call balls and strikes. so these attempts to intimidate those election officials combined with the nationwide push that has been successful in a hand full of states to

criminalize the actions of election officials takes a huge cost out of the democracy, out of our systems of elections, credibility in elections. >> so obviously, it's not just richard baron as he made clear but election officials from across this country have had the courage to speak out. i've spoken to several of them, you know, they have talked about the threats that they get, right? their families have gotten. here are a few. >> we receive phone calls into our offices that the board of supervisors, our staff saying our families will be slaughtered. >> seemed apparent they were casing our house to see our security measures. >> calls to our offices reminding us that this is what the second amendment is for. people like us. >> all of this motivated by trump's big lie about the election.

now, ben, you know, i've talked to you through this entire election situation, right? over the past year. you have worked in elections for nearly 40 years. have you ever seen anything >> no, never like this. never on such a large scale. never designed to really stop elections officials from doing what they need to do about the casting and counting of ballots. and that goes to the peaceful transfer of power. so these attacks on election officials plus the laws being passed in the states plus what happened on january 6th means that it really is time to tell elections officials that they do have allies, that people do have their backs. >> so obviously governor abbott assigned the voting law in texas. you write in an op ed that in just the past three months several states across the

country, i'm quoting you, passed laws and imposed criminal penalties for, as you say, simply doing their jobs. three of these states, texas, georgia, florida, texas yesterday have empowered partisan poll watchers. that's an explicit part of the legislation. what effect is that going to have? >> in the polling place, which is designed to let people cast their ballots peacefully, weaponized poll watchers can cause, number one, disruption and intimidators to voters and number two distract election officials from doing their job. the really surprising thing to me in all of this is the republicans that were passing these laws seem to have no recognition that this can be used against them as easily as they think they can use democrats. that's a bad situation across the board. >> ben, thank you very much.

>> thanks, erin. next, barack obama, he is back on the campaign trail, this time trying to keep gavin newsom in the governor's seat. in healthcare, our imaging expertise and ai technology aims to help diagnose disease earlier. but why stop there? when we can apply our expertise in cell biology and specialized technologies to help make vital vaccines and treatments available to all. we'll never stop innovating for a healthier world. fujifilm value from innovation welcome to allstate. (phone notification) where we've just lowered our auto rates. ♪ ♪

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>> vice president kamala harris energizing the progressive female base at home. >> we fight for dreamers. we fight for women. we fight for voting rights. and we stand as democrats saying we are proud to do all of that and more. >> oh, my god, the -- i am here for mama la kamala. i am very excited to see her come. >> when we fight, we win! >> reporter: with less than a week to go before election day, the vice president is the woman leading the cavalry for democratic governor gavin newsom. from minnesota senator amy klobuchar to massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. senators saying it may be a california ballot but this is about national women's issues. >> these fights, they're not just in texas, florida, south

dakota, these fights have come to california. are you ready to fight? >> reporter: this is part of the governor's strategy to nationalize the recall in this final week drawing a sharp contrast with republican challenger larry elder, an outspoken radio host with conservative views on race and gender. >> racial justice is on the ballot. social justice is on the ballot. economic justice is on the ballot. environmental justice is on the ballot. california, this race matters. >> there's a reason newsom is focusing on issues impacting women in his party. in 2018 some of the most enthusiastic voters were women helping him win the governor's mansion. >> thank you, california. >> 64% of women voted for newsom then. >> defeating this recall. >> 66% say they will vote to keep newsom in office. >> larry.

larry. >> reporter: but larry elders says the democrat's focus on national issues is newsom avoiding state problems. >> as you know, they are scared to death, which is why all these politicians from outside california are now weighing in. >> reporter: they certainly have sent in the calvary, larry elder, seems like he sort of helps and hurts newsom. he is a fire brand. where does he stand with voters? >> reporter: certain voters, they love him. the gop base draws out a lot of passion. that's what makes him so potent a contender, but he also draws out some hatred and we really saw that play out today. he was at a campaign stop, a scheduled stop in venice, california. he was going to tour homeless encampments and he was greeted by some angry people there, including a protester wearing a

gorilla mask with pink hair throwing an egg at him. it narrowly missed him but that campaign stop was only minutes long when it was planned to be much longer. >> scary. thank you very much. reporting as we said live from oakland. thanks so much for joining us. ac 360 starts now. good evening. tomorrow president biden will address the nation about his plans to reverse the staggering rise in covid cases and deaths that's worse now than one year ago. in fact, today the cdc said the rise in deaths may continue over the next four weeks even as hospitalizations possibly, we caution possibly stabilize. this is despite the fact more than 75% of adults are vaccinated. as the cdc noted today, the pace of vaccinations is down 26% from a month ago. we should caution these vaccination numbers come after a holiday weekend. the president is going to lay out a six point plan with political, economic an