robert: battlegrounds, on the trail and on the hill. >> white supremacy for years, but you always do it. you always start off with a question -- >> elect a president you will not hear me race baiting and you will not hear me dividing you. robert: a prime time standoff. spotlights race, conspiracy theories and public health. president trump: people with masks are catching it all the time. >> and when a president doesn't wear a mask or makes fun of folks like me, then, you know, people say, well, it must not be that important. robert: and a supreme court showdown on capitol hill. >> you're just trying to ram through th justice agast your own words. robert: next.

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arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. on again, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. and welcome to "washington week." 18 days. and here's what i know. my democrati sources say vice president biden's campaign is now working to expand the political map into the deep south and the sunbelt, whispers of a blue wave, they grow louder by the day. inside the g.o.p., my sources are upbeat about judge amy coney barrett's likely confirmation. but republicans are worried about the democrats' hits on health care and about getting pulled into president trump's riptide of grievances. those grievances, however were

front and center at this week's dueling town halls. president trump: i denounce white supremacy. what's your next question? i just don't know about qanon. what i do hear about it is they are very strongly again pedophilia and i agree with that. i'm good with masks. i'm ok with masks. and i tell people wear masks. and people with masks are catching it all the time. robert: and here is democratic nominee joe biden. >> we're in a situation where we have 210,000 people dead and what's he doing? nothing. he's still not wearing masks. and so on. i have not been a fan of court packing. let the department of justice be the department of justice. robert: joining us tonight are three of washington's best reporters, chuck todd, moderator of "meet the press" and nbc news' polical error also host of "meet the press" daily on msnbc, jane mayer, chief washington crespondent

for the new yorker, and ayesha rascoe, white house reporter for national public radio. chuck, let's start with you. you heard the grievance from president trump. is his grievance the closing message for his campaign? chuck: well, it appears that it is going to be his closing message. i think there are a lot of people around him that wish it were not his closing message and that's what really struck me this week and at the town hall at that point was the fact that, look, the president using grievance as his delivery message is not a new thing. it's what grievances he's channeling. at the town hall last night, it was all about him. it was his complaints, the complaints about "the new york times" and his tax returns or the complaints about the russia hoaxes he might -- the complaints about not enough attention to hunter biden. four years ago, grievance base

based but channel being the grievances of his base and talking about immigration. he was talking about issues. now, he may have done it in a very crude way and it may have alienated some people. but they were issues and he was channeling somebody else's grievance. right now, they're all about him, and i think that's one of the big differences from four years ago, robert. robert: jane, you cover not only grievances in american politics but the conspiracies that are rising on the right. how is that factoring into this campaign, the president's refusal to disavow qanon, a conspiracy theory that the f.b.i. has warned could be domestic terrorism? jane: his strategy has been from the start to double down on his base rather than trying to broaden his support. there was a sense in the town hall this week that he is now being driven almost into the corner of his base. so you really see him embracing some of the fringeyest of the fringe conspiracy theories, like qanon.

it's not just that he didn't denounce qanon. he actually kind of embraced it. and sort of pretended that it had some -- that it wasn't total nonsense which i think -- as you said, his own f.b.i. knows that it is. so he's -- it's a little bit like a versi of the birtherism that he embraced in earlier campaigns. but this -- this one is really wacky. and he's not disavowing it. robert: why is that, ayesha? when you talk to your bhouse sources, ashley parr wrote today in the post that the president embraces anyone who praises him. does it come down to that? ayesha: i believe so. anyone who he feels like is on his side, who is not critical of him, he feels like it's us against them. and i think you see this also when president trump has been called out over and over again over not calling out white supremacy. how hard is it to denounce white supremacy?

and the most that you can get from president trump, he will be defensive and say he's done it over and over again. butette -- but most surely i denounce it and you will get a strong more denunciation out of morning joe. and on the right, protesters or agitators on the right, if he feels like they are somehow not upset with him, then he can find a way to just kind of -- if it's not a wink or a nod, not a strong denunciation. that's the way he's -- that's the way he has behaved his entire presidency. robert: but what about vice president biden, chuck? if this is how the president's closing the campaign, is his strategy enough? is his ground game enough to counter that blizzard of information that sometimes disinformation coming out of the white house? chuck: we're going to find out. i mean, i will say this. i have my -- i have some

concern that you see the sort of lack of physical field program. and we know that i think the biden campaign suddenly if you've noticed, robert, there's a lot more surrogates suddenly showing up in battleground states. there is a concern, i think, among some democrats that hey, this virtual campaign, it's done wonders in the fundraising front and certainly allowed for plenty of tv advertising, plenty of digital advertising. what is missing with the hand-to-hand campaigning? is that going to be something they regret? that said, this is a case where their operation essentlly is fused with their message. and so the message is what? focus on the virus. that's number one. and so in that sense, it does keep this campaign on message. and ultimately i believe it's still the best closing argument they can have which is to st focused on the virus. robert: jane, we heard from the biden campaign that they had a record fundraising haul this

week. but what is the real story based on your reporting about where money is in this campaign both the public funds, the public money that we know that's publicly disclosed, and also the dark money that you've reported on for years? jane: well, i mean, there's a gigantic amount of money in this race. but just most recently, there was a new set of f.e.c. filings that show among the largest campaign contributors are a handful of the richest people in the country which has been par for the course for the last few years. and one of them was sheldon adelson and his wife, miriam, who are las vegas casino owners and th put in over $100 million into donald trump. so you're seeing some very, very big bets from a handful of the biggest donors. you know, it's -- there are few alarming other signs that i think you can see.

there was a piece in "the new york times" that suggests that voter registration is way up for republicans in some of the battleground states. so that business, that appear ratus to some extent is paid for by private donors and dark money, groups in a get out and do that sort of thing. robert: jane, just to follow up, adeln got in relatively late with some of this cash. are republican donors sticking with president trump at this critical point in the campaign? jane: , well, i mean, it depends which republican donors you're talking about. wall street appears to be shifting from the republican party to backing biden. and i think there's a sense that wall street is tired of the chaos in the trump period. and is looking for something different. and maybe also worried about the economy because of the coronavirus and the lack of any kind of coordinated federal effort on it. so you're seeing some shifts.

and, you know, and biden certainly has a ton of money. and you can basically really truly, after ruth bader ginsburg died, there was suddenly a tremendous flood of money into the senate races on the democratic side. that single event seems to have just triggered a gusher of small donations to all these senate races. robert: let's dig into that, ayesha. because you've been reporting about how the map is expanding. i'll hearing it from democrats. you see the president going to georgia, a republican stronghold. the democrats looking at texas, they're looking at georgia, south carolina, the senate race there with jamie harrison. is some of this new money, the big money, for biden, going to go now into the dee south and the sunbelt? ayesha: it seems like they can try to make a pitch for those places. i think part of it may be just keeping the trump campaign on its toes and making them spend in some of these places that they shouldn't have to be. the president is in macon,

orgia, today. why does a republican president have to be in macon, georgia, 18 days out from the election? that is not good. and so if they can use some of this, you know, this gusher of cash that has come in to kind of make them fight on all of these, you know, on all of this territory, that's in the democrats' favor. but, you know, i don't know about these polls that are showing things tight -- in places like georgia or texas. it seems very -- you know, it seems very hard to believe that biden would be able to pull something out like that. or -- even in south carolina, you know, with the senate race ther it's difficult to believe. but there is this belief that if he's spending the money that possibly because of the coronavirus, because of all these things, that the map could be a bit different this time around. robert: chuck, do your sources believe it? chuck: well, they do because it's a green wave, robert.

i mean, the amount of money, jane is right. the death of ruth bader ginsburg just turned on a spigot for these senate races. and it trickles all the way down. you know, look, the investments in texas by the biden campaign are as much about helping down the ballot that flipped that state house. you know, democrats suddenly are looking at flipping the state legislature in arizona, in texas, and outside shot in florida, outside shot in iowa. that's where all this sfra money is -- all this extra money is coming down. that's how biden is helping down the ballot. he's not transferring money but playing in some states that you would be like, why is he playing there? it's as much about helping the ticket all the way down because democrats seeome major opportunities here that aren't just your handful of senate races, extra house races. but some state legislatures and remember, next year's a redistricting year. robert: and let's not forget

the campaign is also facing pressures from capitol hill. senate republicans say they have the votes to confirm judge barrett. but democrats cast her nomination this week as a thre to president obama's health care law and abortion rights. barrett defended her vution. >> i'm not hostile to the a.c.a. or any statute that you pass. roe is not a super precedent because it calls for -- calls for its overrulingent v-haven't ceased but doesn't mean that roe shouldn't be overruled. robert: jane, you've written a book about it and what is your read on how this unfolded this week, the democrats holding back a bit on her personal story, her biography, focusing on health care and what's that all about? jane: the democrats showed unusual dcipline for them. they're usually not terribly well coordinated. but they -- they really -- they obviously had a campaign strategy which is to make this

about how the health care act, obamacare, was hanging in the balance because there is a big supreme court case that's goi to be heard right after the election. and if they confirm amy coney barrett, she will be on the court i time for that. and so they tried to really tee up that one case. i mean, i think stepping back a little bit, that while you can see that the republicans are likely to win this fight and get barrett confirmed, they might lose the war a little bit on this politically in some ways. they'll get the court the way they wt it to be. but there's such a backlash that they have unleashed by just resorting to such raw power politics as t sound bite you played earlier had -- the democrats are talking about jamming this woman down their throats and having a separate set of rules for democratic

nominees and republican nominees because of merrick garland having been stopped. and all of this is really radicalizing and motivating progressives who want to get payback if the democrats get the senate. robert: that's such aey point. the idea of payback, democratic energy. because my sources tell me that the g.o.p. solidarity on barrett is real. but it's also a facade for growing anxiety. and we heard senator ben sasse of nebraska this week, he kind of captured the mood among some republicans. >> the way he -- not just that he fails to lead our allies but the united states now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership. the way he treats women and spends like a drunken sailor, he mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. robert: ayesha, is that revealing about where the g.o.p. is in these final 18 days? ayesha: well, what we've been,

you know, looking for to see is there going to be any fipe of distancing from -- type of distancing from the republicans to the whiteouse. now, generally, you aren't going to have a real distancing because trump is the republican party. they're not going to be able to distance from them. and i think there's still a fear of the base. but you are seeing these things with ben sse who is now in a safe position. he's saying these things that have come out now. you saw mitch mcconnell saying that he hadn't been to the white house in a while because he felt like they weren't taking the coronavirus seriously. and you know, you saw senator thom tillis talk about needing a check against a biden presidency. so you're seeing these -- you need the senate to stay republican. so you are seeing these little kind of teases of what could be a bit of distancing from the president as people are, you know, reading the tea leaves and are clearly concerned. robert: chuck, i spoke to

maryland gotcharry hogan this week. he said he won't vote for president trump. he's going to do a write-in for the late ronald reagan. we've seen.o.p. cracks here or there. is theenator sasse statement something that you're hearing from others in the upper echelo of the republican party? chuck: not yet. you know, i expected a few more brea and we're not seeing it and i say that because i thought especially if biden started to build a lead that we're looking at now, and i know there's a lot of -- some skepticism and we've been here before and in some ways we've been here before even with republicans going i don't know if i can support him. at this point in time in 2016 they were dropping like flies because it was just after the access hollywood tape. but you're not -- it is more of a trickle. it is more of a constituent teleconfence call from ben sasse. it's not like he wanted to sound and say hey, everybody, look at me what i'm doing here.

you get this sense that they're all testing this message. you know, it's almost like they're poking the electric fence and seeing if they'll get charged out of it. but ultimately, and i had a republican strategist say this to me from one of the senate races where you would think maybe this is the place where you pull away from trump, and this strategist said look, you can't win with him, and you can't win without him. and that's where some of these republican senators are stuck in. robert: jane jane, you've written about marmont leader mcconnell and wants to overhaul the federal judiciary and wants these justices on the supreme court. where is he at this moment as the majority is at risk, but he looks like he will have a new justice on the court? that he helped shepherd and get there? ne: well, people have told me when i was reporting o mcconnell that his north star, the thing that he's always wanted the most, is to stay majority leader. and the interesting thing is he may not be able to do that in

part because he's thrown his lot in so much and so closely with trump. there's no daylight between them. and as far back as march, really, you could see that as trump began to bungle a lot of the coronavirus response, it became more and more of a risk for mcconnell who, you know, was having toarry the weight of trump's not responding more effectively to this terrible pandemic. so it -- that -- you know, the fact that he enabled trump and that they had this partnership in a way has come back to bite him to some extent. robert: in stimulus talks here in washington, they remain stalled. speaker pelosi this week defended her push for a big $2 trillion bill. it's about millions of americans who can't put food on the table, who can't pay the rent. >> and we represent them. >> troubled -- r long food

lines -- >> we know them. we represent them. and we know them. >> as we say -- >> we know them and represent them. >> don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. robert: that clip was from cnn. ayesha, the speaker's holding her line, $2 trillion. a little bit more than $2 trillion. is this going to be an animating issue r democrats in the final days? ayesha: i believe -- i believe that the issue of the coronavirus is going to be an animating issue. certainly think that democrats do think that they need -- that they do want an aid package. but president trump did give them really an out when he tweeted that he was walking away from negotiations, we'll wait until after the election. now, of course, he quickly backpedaled on that. but, you know, the tweet is out there. and the idea that he was the one that walked away, that was really a gift for democrats who i think are feeling preure or have been feeling pressure to try to get something done.

but the way things are going right now, with president trump and trying to get on the same page as nancy pelosi, that's very difficult. and not only that, you have a republican senate that is very weary of this aid package. and so i think some of that is because of the writing on the wall because of the election. and they want to see what's going to happen in the election, the election before they pass a massive aid package. so i think that is going to be very difficult to get done before the election. and that is something that by president trump taking ownership of that, it did take some of the heat off of democrats. robert: how do you see these dynamics, chuck? is the speaker just seeing if secretary mnuchin blinks? chuck: at this point, yes. and she does expect him to blink and if it wasn't for mark meadows the white house would have blinked a long time. this is a real head scratcher but mark meadows and the senate

republicans. but you got to remember something here, and i do think that we don't focus enough on the roadblock that is the senate republicans. in washington, d.c., there is an endangered species. it is always endangered. but you're never sure which party it is endangered in. it's called the deficit hawk. and this endangered species which you thought was going extinct in the republican party for the last four years is suddenly resurrecting itself. and you have a whole bunch of senate republicans that want to be deficit hawks again, particularly if there's going to be a democratic president. it's a more comfortable place for them to be. and i think that's the real roadblock here. and it is something that the speaker has been sort of trying to telegraph. hey, i might get closer with minute chunn. what about -- with minute chunn? what about those guys? they're not in the neighborhood with the money. i don't see where we're going anywhere. robert: jane, can you jump in on000? you've written so much about the koch brothers and the rise of these powerful deficit hawks, conservatives inside the republican party. are they going to make this an

issue in 2021 whether the post-trump era or the second trump term? jane: absolutely. the big donors of the publican party, the koches and others, tend to be anti-government or at least small government people. they want tiny government spending. they want a free rein for business. they certainly want their taxes kept very, very low. and they see a big spending bill like this as something that's going to raise their taxes, cost money, and strengthen the hand of the government. i mean, these are people, a lot of these donors are people who want to undo everything from the progressive era on, let alone the new deal, and, you know, so they are -- they -- and niece are the people -- and these are the people behind mitch mcconnell and he is standing firm that he doesn't want this bailout. robert: we're going to have to leave it there tonight. many thanks to our reporters for stopping by on a friday night here in the fall. chuck todd, jane mayer, and

ayesha rascoe, really appreciate it. thank you. and we will keep taking you all as close to the news as we can. make sure to check out our "washington week extra. i'll talk to jane more about all this deep reporting on money and politics and what it means for the fabric of american democracy. you can find it on our wsite or social media. i'm robert costa. good night from washington. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> when e world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth

management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> babble. a language learning program developed by over 100 language specialists. babble teaches real life conversations in spanish, french, russian, and more. babble's 10 to 15-minute lessons are available as an app or online at babble.com. announcer: consur cellular. additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

announcer: major funding for "the first angry man" was provided by... the national endowment for the humanities, bringing youhe stories that define us. in association with justfilms ford foundation. additional funding was provided by th jonathan logan family foundation, california humanities, catapult film fund, the better angels society, and by berkeley film foundation. [static] ronald: reagan: government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. george bush: read mys.