would like that a lot. so i put it on her. and she went, it smells like my mommy. a presidential campaign like no other. >> no administration has accomplished more. >> in a political season like no other. >> donald trump failed us. >> donald trump versus joe biden. >> put america first. >> this is a battle for the soul of the united states of america. >> a choice as fundamental as any in american history, under the most trying circumstances since world war ii. >> we're going to build our economy, our country, better than it was before this god-awful crisis. >> 100 days from now, voters will decide between two very different futures. >> there's never been a comeback like we're making right now. >> and the whole world is watching.

>> announcer: from nbc news, this is "decision 2020: 100 days to go." this is chuck todd. hello, everyone, and welcome. after a presidential campaign that has already seemed to last an eternity, we are now just 100 days away from what could be the most consequential election of our lifetimes. yes, it's a phrase that's said a lot, but this time we may mean it. november 3rd, after four years of donald trump, americans will decide what kind of president we want what kind of country we want, and we will do it at a precarious moment in our history. a time of political division, racial strife, economic calamity, and, of course, a deadly pandemic that has now killed about 150,000 americans, and right now with no end in sight. we've confronted all of these things before as a country. but we've never tried to do it all at once. needless to say, there is a lot at stake. over the next hour, we're going to take a close look at the

state of the race right now, the epic showdown between donald trump and joe biden. joining me, nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. telemundo senior correspondent cristina lodano. all of us looking at a presidential campaign and a political moment like no other. >> my administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to prevent the spread of this illness in the united states. we are ready. >> despite deflection -- >> i don't take responsibility at all. >> responsibly shifting -- >> the governors are responsible, they have to take charge. >> and denial -- >> we are the king of testing. >> -- it's clear with 100 days to go, the 2020 election will be a referendum on president trump and his handling of the virus. >> what would you have done differently facing this crisis? >> well, nothing. >> the virus continues to drag

down mr. president trump's political standing. 37% of voters approve of how he's handled it down 8 points since march. job rating, personal feel action about him, attitudes on re-electi re-election, all are under water. mr. trump is counting on a quick economic recovery. >> the good thing is the numbers will be coming out just prior to the election, so people will be able to see those numbers. >> but voters are tuning in now. 77% already say they are highly interested in this election. most of them have already made up their minds. president trump trails joe biden by 11 points, with 13% of voters up for grabs saying they might change their mind about either candidate. >> donald trump's failure to fight the coronavirus with the same energy and focus that he used to troll his enemies on twitter has cost us lives. >> the president is doing his best to make the election about anything else, trying to drive up joe biden's negatives. >> biden is a very willing trojan horse for socialism. >> biden is a puppet of bernie sanders, aoc, the militant left.

>> nobody will be safe in a biden america. >> if it ends up being a popularity contest, or worse, a referendum on president trump, i think he's got some real headwinds to face. >> many republicans question whether the president can avoid the spotlight long enough to make the election a choice rather than simply a verdict on him. >> i think right now, obviously trump has a problem with the middle of the elec independe independents, and they're the people who are going to decide a national election. >> the election will also be a referendum of the voting system itself. in 40 days, the first ballots will be mailed out in north carolina. 22 more states begin failing absentee ballots 45 days or more before the election. launching a fight over access to the ballots. >> voting by mail is wrought with fraud and abuse. >> in fact, fraud via mail-in ballots is quite rare. in setting up what may be a weeks-long process to count

absentee votes. >> we're putting together a major initiative of lawyers to go out and make sure that we're in every single district in the country to patrol this. >> more than three weeks after the new york primaries, thousands of absentee ballots still have not been counted, leaving some closely watched races unresolved. a big red flag for november. >> all the polls right now seem to paint the same picture. advantage, biden. of course, things can change. memories of donald trump's 2016 upset win over hillary clinton have democrats apprehensive and republicans hopeful that things will change. our expert in such things is national political correspondent steve kornacki. it's interesting, but what is the main difference this time as opposed to 2016? is it simply that little "i" that's next to donald trump's name on the ballot signaling incumbent? >> it might just be as simple as that.

the two differences you can see right here on this screen, our latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll. number one, joe biden, trump's opponent, he's over 50%. hillary clinton late in the polling in 2016, but how many times did you see her over that 50% mark against donald trump? remember, there were some third-party candidates in 2016 gobbling up a pretty big chunk of the vote back then. you're not really seeing that now, and biden's over 50%. the margin here, both in our poll, 11-point lead for joe biden, and really all of the other major national polls that are out there showing sizable biden leads. in 2016, we say hillary clinton led pretty much the whole race. her leads were basically about 3 to 8 points. it was usually somewhere in that range. we're sitting in high single digits, low double-digits in poll after poll. if you take from it a national level to the battleground state level, here's six key battleground states. donald trump in 2016 went 6 for 6 in these states, won every one, including three states that hadn't gone republican in 30 years. he won michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin. take a look right now at the

polling we're seeing in those states right now. in all six of those states right now you see joe biden leading donald trump in the polling. biden doesn't have to go 6 for 6 when you look at the electoral college map. he probably needs two or three to get over 270. there's also this. if you just compare trump to past presidents running for re-election, where did they stand in our nbc news poll at this point? there's basically three different groups here. reagan and clinton, they were way ahead. they both won easily. obama, george w. bush, they led pretty narrowly. they won pretty narrowly. 1980, '92. carter and h.w. bush, they trailed big and they lost pretty decisively. where does trump fit in? in our poll, not as bad as those two, but a lot worse than all the others. >> interesting that you did all those states. two states we're talking about a lot more today than we were a

year ago not even on that list -- georgia and texas. it just shows you that that's another aspect of this race right now that this map seems to be expanding. stick around. we'll check back in with you later in the hour on some senate race looks there. let's go to the panel. white house correspondent kristen welker, cnbc's kayla tausche, washington correspondent for nbc, telemundo correspondent cristina mondano. cristina, the mood of the white house, they're well aware of his standing but at times it seems as if the president himself isn't. is this a white house that is realizing how far behind they are? >> my sense is they are starting to, chuck. there's deep concern within the white house, within the trump campaign, that the president needs to do something differently. you saw him try to turn the page on the coronavirus crisis, try to put the focus on the economy

and the states that are reopening. and if you talk to his aides and allies, they will say that, essentially, they weren't getting the message across that he was leading on this crisis. if you look at the polling, time and time again, essentially it said the american public didn't believe as though he was out front on this. so, you saw major change in strategy this past week, president trump bringing back those daily briefings. instead of being at the podium, though, with his task force, he was at the podium alone. this is a risk y strategy, chuc. these briefings are a shot shorter than when they got rid of them in april.

the question is will he stay on message? they were canceled in april because he made a slew of controversial comments. there's no doubt, though, administration officials feel as though the president needs to change course. he more forcefully enforced masks, for example this past week. will that continue? will he stay on message? will it resonate with voters? one administration official said to me, look, there is time to come back, but there's not a lot of time, chuck. we are reaching the end of summer. and so there is real pressure on this president to show that he can lead with these three crises that you laid out, chuck. >> there's a great yogi ber berraism. it's getting late early. in this campaign, i think it is. you pointed something out about the original coronavirus briefings led by the president, that was one of -- you put the president's approval ratings on a chart, you watched it go down. that was one pivot point. cristina lodano, probably the second pivot point that took trump from being a deficit of 5 points to biden to this now deficit of 10 was that infamous night, st. john's church, lafayette park. you were there.

you experienced this in ways none of us care to have to have done ourselves. that seems to also be an important moment in this campaign. >> that's right, chuck. very few of us thought we would ever see something like that in this country. i had lived through it in latin america but not here in the u.s. we were getting ready to go live for our evening newscast, and all of a sudden we realized we were under attack. we did not expect it. there were people kneeling in protest around me when we started tasting the tear gas, and then came the mounted police and the flash grenades. i actually looked down to see if my feet were still there, and then we realized we were being targeted. they started shooting at us. my bureau chief got hit in the back, the photographer in his stomach, also in his arm, i got hit in my arm. we don't know what it was, pepper balls some people have said, rubber bullets. you have some pictures of what my arm was looking like. and everything got worse when we realized that all this had happened because president trump wanted to walk across lafayette

park and take a picture with a bible in his hand. this infuriated church leaders, members of the military, republicans would actually run away from the press when they were asked to react to what had happened. and the president the next day was actually celebrating, tweeting, overwhelming force, domination. these are words and images that his critics say are autocratic, dictatorial, and have no place in this country. >> the fact of the matter is, we frame this election as a referendum on the virus and the president's leadership on that. you look at the nbc/"wall street journal" poll. his approval rating on the virus is not great, 39%. his approval rating on race relations is even worse. i think that moment in particular is seared and the question is whether the president can at all erase that moment. let's turn a little bit to what the president is hoping for, kayla. you heard it in our piece that we put together. he expects this third quarter

boom in the economy that is going to remind everybody of what the economy was like in february. how realistic is that? >> well, it depends on how much money, chuck, the government is willing to inject into the economy. just this week we learned some 32 million americans are receiving unemployment benefits. that compared to about 2 million a year ago. so, the underlying economy is reeling even as the stock market continues to notch new records. we know voters, even as they began to prefer joe biden on the coronavirus response and social justice issues, they stuck with trump on the economy until very recently. and advisers believe that that is the area where they can stem the tide. they want to return to an argument that president trump made the economy the best it's ever been before this external shock to the system, and he can do it again. but to do that, he needs to extinguish the virus. and that's one of the reasons why we've seen this change in tone that kristin highlighted earlier where they know now that they need to get the virus under

control so that businesses can stay open, people feel comfortable going out, spending money going to restaurants and businesses. without that confidence, the president's promises cannot actually bear out the result that he wants. worth noting, chuck, by the end of this year, the administration is on pace to spend in stimulus programs more than ten time as what the government spent to bail out american banks in 2008. that is just the scope of these programs that the trump administration is trying to enact to shore up the economy and reverse financial fortunes in a narrowing window of time. >> kayla, i'm curious. is it because of all this government money that's being infused into the economy, not just in this country but all over the world, is that why the stockmarket looks so different from the economy the rest of us in america are staring at? >> that's right, chuck. the stock market is not the economy. the stock market right now here in the u.s. is being led by a

handful of very large corporations, many of whom are seeing the federal reserve actually going in and buying their debt and investing in these companies, like apple, amazon, home depot, disney. they are propelling the market to new highs even as the underlying economy, real americans, are unemployed. we have unemployment in this country higher than the peak of the great recession. so, there is a joint effort to keep the market afloat so that the president has that as a talking point to continue pointing to, but also to try to shore up the balance sheet of the american family. >> i tell you, kayla, that was terrific. we don't nationalize our industries here, but it is interesting that we're investing government money in our major industries here. that is the picture we are staring at. thanks to all of you for getting us off to a great start here. we've got a lot more to go in this program that i think will

give you everything you need to have to know with 100 days to go. you want to stay with us because when we come back, we're going to hear from two veteran political operatives who are among the best in the business to get their take on 2020. both of them have gotten to the political world series, if you will. also, the second-most important decision voters will be making this fall, who will control the senate? plus, a look alt how social media giants are, or not, policing the accuracy of online ads this season. handicapping the potentially decisive latino vote when we continue with "decision 2020: 100 days to go." businesses are starting to bounce back.

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as the campaign end game plays out, we'll see all-out political war unfold between the trump and biden camps and their surrogates. so, who better to turn to than a couple of veterans of such wars to give us an idea of what to expect. for this i turn it over to my pal kristen welker. kristen, who have you got for us? >> we have a great conversation coming up. i want to introduce two very experienced old hands when it comes to american politics. we have democratic strategist david plouffe, who's, of course, the campaign manager to barack obama. then senior adviser to president obama, so no stranger to all of this, senior strategist to mitt romney's campaign, stewart stevens, now, of course, a member of the republican anti-trump lincoln project and author of "it was all a lie: how the republican party became

donald trump" out next week, so you don't want to miss that. thank you both so much for being here for a really important conversation. david, i want to start with you. obviously both men have had to get really creative when it comes to trying to reach out to voters against the backdrop of this pandemic. so we've seen joe biden holding virtual town halls. he just did this joint conversation with former president barack obama. how do you assess his strategy so far? he's obviously leading in the polls and democrats want to ask the question, how does he keep it going? does he need to have more visibility, or should he stay the course? >> well, kristen, i think that he's starting to more aggressively fill in the blanks for what he would do as president. i think that more than enough people to defeat donald trump, in my view, have decided they don't want to rehire him. biden job is to make sure, keep pressure there, but i think events largely will do that.

he's got, you know, good plans that will make a difference in our lives. you posted an infographic earlier that showed, yes, the election is 100 days out from today. but voting starts in 45 days. in key battleground states in 65 to 70 days. a lot of people are going to be voting so you're running out of time. joe biden has to continue on the economy, the health care, the pandemic. a big question for voters, when we do have a vaccine, who can you trust to make sure it's distributed and executed effectively? and then you've got to worry -- and this is more about the campaign than joe biden -- the complication of voting. you've got a lot of people we still have to register in the democratic party, a lot of people voting by mail for the first time. june in some primaries 7% to 8% of votes did not count because people didn't fill them in properly. basic education has to happen. so, yes, for swing voters, joe biden's doing about as well as he can do, leading with seniors, winning in the suburbs, places

the democrats historically have struggled in recent presidential elections, particularly with seniors. so hold onto that as much as you can. then the execution of the actual voting that needs to take place is a huge degree of difficulty. >> yeah, and stewart, let me bring you in on that point. we've seen president trump this past week really shift his strategy in acknowledgement of the fact that it is getting late early, as we've been talking about, right, that he really needs to change it up here and get out front, as his aides are saying. so he's doing that essentially using the white house as a political rally, if you will, although trying to stay on message. do you think that that's going to be effective? we also see him, again, stoking the cultural wars like he did in 2016. is that playbook going to work? >> my bet is not. the question is, what is this election about? donald trump had planned two elections. one to run on the economy and

one to run against socialism. so the economy is the worst that it's been since the depression. that doesn't look great. joe biden and socialism doesn't really go together. i mean, the whole idea that trump's famous for nicknames, sleepy joe biden, sleepy is not a nickname that scares women and children. so they're confused about this. they don't know what to do. most markedly, there's no policy in this campaign. i mean, normally in a presidential campaign, you'd be rolling out what you're going to do if you're re-elected. i don't think anybody can tell you what donald trump would do if he was re-elected as president. meanwhile, you have the biden campaign in a very methodical way, laying out policy that actually affects people's lives. if you listen to the speech that vice president biden gave on home care, helping those who need child care and home attendants, i mean, those are real problems people are

struggling with. meanwhile, you have donald trump up there who's like running for the landmark commission, trying to protect monuments, including confederate monuments. i don't think it has the immediacy of how this is going to make my life better? >> yeah, i think you raise an important point. biden also rolling out his plan to bring back manufacturing jobs, which even some trump aides have said, hey, that's something that could win over trump voters. on the point of sleepy joe biden, one aide to me said, sleepy sounds pretty good when you've had four years of exhaustion. that was from a trump official. to your point, his punches so far don't seem to be landing. chuck, with that, let me send it back you do because i know you've got some questions as well. >> well, i was going to say, i'm going to say ontay on the same . stewart, you were a little more involved in politics in the '80s than david or i, apologies for

aging you a little bit. explain to our viewers this. why did george h.w. bush and roger ailes and lee atwater -- basically, they ran this sort of nonissue campaign against dukakis, made up a 17-point deficit, able to pull it off. why do you think that won't work against joe biden the way it worked against michael dukakis? >> well, you know, basically the question in the '88 race was would you like a third term of romd ronald reagan, and the answer was more people would like that than not. the problem essentially that trump has, incumbent -- races tend to be about the incumbent. all this stuff, donald trump is great at promising and terrible at delivering. it's been true all his life. so now, you know, they're confused about this. you hear it. they're running pictures of donald trump, america, and saying this is what it will be like if joe biden is president, and what it is like when donald trump is president. so, listen. i saw this poll where -- the

monmouth poll where donald trump had a very unfavorable 48%. i've never seen anything like that. that's sort of like eastern bloc countries. so the hardest thing, politics is very unfavorable at moving the vote for you. his margin of error is going to be very, very small. they're going to try to basically get every white vote that they can. they're going to run, and i think are running, a racially tinged campaign unlike anything we've seen in modern politics by a president or a nominee of a party. it's very reminiscent of george wallace. i think he's missing the mark. i don't think he's speaking to where america is now. the same weekend that my home state of mississippi finally voted to take down the mississippi flag, which was basically a confederate battle flag, you have donald trump who argues for the flag, saying he should have the right to do it. so whenever a republican is on the wrong side of nascar and

walmart, which donald trump is, that's a really bad sign if you're planning to wage a cultural war. >> i've always said culturally donald trump hasn't moved since about 1974. he's culturally thinking america is in the same place as it was in new york city in 1974. kayla, jump in here a minute. >> i want to ask a question to david about how history can be a guide here. because, you know, we have now questioned the reliability of polls as a leading indicator, but the economy has always been pretty good at telling us what could happen. the biden campaign has seized on this, noting that no party has retained the presidency with unemployment above 8% or with net jobs lost. i actually put this question to the treasury secretary in recent days, asking him how they can turn this around. i'd like to get your response on the other side of this comment from the treasury secretary. >> well, there's never been a point in history of time that we've closed down the u.s. economy. so i don't think those traditional numbers are important.

what i do think is we are rebuilding the economy. the blue chip indicators for the third quarter is expecting 17% gdp. we're recreating jobs. we're providing a lot of liquidity to american business and american workers. so the president's economic plans are really working, and we still have more work to do. >> david, if there is no precedent for this time, how do we figure out what the economy's going to do to the outcome of the election? >> well, listen. we have faced off against stewart and the romney team in 2012 with the unemployment very high, and so there were son lessons from that, which is the stockmarket had rebounded during president obama's first term, but that was not a reason to vote for the president, okay? small business owners, workers, experience the economy much differently. i think what's really going to happen is voters, small business owners, workers are going to make a decision that the economy, generally and for them personally, will never recover until we escape the clutches of

this virus. and who can you trust to finally put the numbers to rest, to get a vaccine distributed, and to prepare for the next one, toonld make the smart governmental policy decisions along the way? i think the jury's out on that. i think people do not think donald trump's capable but that he did lead on the question of who do you trust more to lead the economy? that lead's evaporated. i think joe biden has an opportunity, not to lead by 10 or 15 on that measure, but maybe build a small lead. again this comes down to, when people are casting their vote at the end of september, early october, november, how are they feeling? do they have confidence that donald trump is going to set the conditions so that their life can get better? i don't think he can. the other thing is, donald trump kind of won the debate in 2016 with hillary clinton over who was going to fight for working people? he became the change agent. i think joe biden, his biography, the political figure he is, the language he uses, his policies, stewart mentioned home health care -- i think he's got an opportunity on that issue and

others to speak to issues people care about. trump, the election is about the economy. donald trump's messaging is one thing, the stock market. it's puzzling, almost political malpractice. so the thing that people care most about, and the virus is attached obviously, he's missing the mark on. i think in 2012, when we won a tough and close race, we had to hammer that economic message. and we also developed the contrast of mitt romney. so donald trump, we are 45 days away from people voting. he has not laid out a core argument about why he should be re-elected or why joe biden shouldn't be, other than sleepy joe, which i agree with stewart is not going to scare anybody. >> i tell you, i have about six more questions for the both of you, but instead i'll text them to you and we'll do those down the road. you guys were as good as i thought you'd be. stewart stevens, check out his new book. if you've never read any stewart stevens book, both david plouffe and i have authored books, but

steven stewart's a writer. you're a beautiful writer, stewart. even if you don't agree with what he's writing, you'll enjoy reading his book. thank you and i'm sure you'll enjoy watching being in the middle of this. thank you both. >> thank you. no matter who wins the white house this fall, how much they'll actually be able to get done will depend in large part on which party controls the senate. six years ago under leader mitch mcconnell, republicans won back a majority. this fall with joe biden leading in the polls and with republicans defending a whopping 23 senate seats with the democrats only having to defend 12, the democrats hope this is their chance to win back the senate. where do they have the best shot? for that, let's go back to kornacki. steve, basically there's two senate battlegrounds, if you will. the close, polarized environment, and then this other world we may live in. show us. >> exactly. first, for some context, take a look at recent presidential elections, then what the popular vote was nationally. remember, clinton didn't win the electoral college.

he did win the popular vote in 2016. that translated, democrats gained two seats in i 2016. recent elections, 2004, bush won by 3, republicans picked up four senate seats. you get to 2008 when obama won a big -- a 7-point win over mccain. democrats got a big eight-seat gain in the senate. the higher the popular vote margin for the winner gets, the more you have an opportunity to pick up senate seats. of course, right now, if you just average out the polls together that are out there, biden's lead is 9, raises the possibility. we'll see. would democrats be in that range again? let's take a look at our senate sliders. i love this screen right here. this is what we thought the battleground would be at the start of the year. a tight, polarized election, this is what we thought. alabama, doug jones running for election, republicans thought, that's a clear pickup. democrats thinking arizona, cory gardner in colorado.

not a trump state in 2016. they think they can get that. they think they can finally get susan collins in maine. if they got those three, lost alabama, then maybe north carolina, thom tillis, competitive state. that's the conversation. if democrats get to 50 and joe biden gets elected, democrats get the senate. but you mentioned if you have a big biden win nationally, it raises the possibility -- that's the wrong one there. here you go -- it raises the possibility of a lot more states. georgia, two races. iowa, kansas, montana, maybe others. you've talked about south carolina. the bigger that margin gets, the more come into this column. >> it's fascinating. people, if this is a 1980-style election as some people thought it could be, ronald reagan brought 12 senate seats with him in that landslide. there's not a path to 12 for the democrats, but there is one to eight or nine. steve kornacki, with that, thank you, sir. we have much more ahead on

this special "100 days" edition, including a look at the outside role social media plays in our elections and what's being done to rein it in. then, of course, there's this. the all-important latino vote could put more states in play, could decide which party controls the senate. we're going to take a look at it in a deeper dive with 100 days go. 100 days go so what's going on? i'm a talking dog. the other issue. oh...i'm scratching like crazy. you've got some allergic itch with skin inflammation. apoquel can work on that itch in as little as 4 hours, whether it's a new or chronic problem. and apoquel's treated over 8 million dogs. nice. and...the talking dog thing? is it bothering you? no...itching like a dog is bothering me. until dogs can speak for themselves, you have to. when allergic itch is a problem, ask for apoquel. apoquel is for the control of itch associated with allergic dermatitis and the control of atopic dermatitis in dogs.

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i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. guidance to help you stay on track, no matter what comes next. ♪ but what if you could startdo better than that? like adapt. discover. deliver. in new ways. to new customers. what if you could come back stronger? faster. better. at comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back. but bounce forward. and now, we're committed to helping you do just that with a powerful and reliable internet and voice solution at a great price. call or go online today. ♪ and we're back. we have seen it before, media

technology transforming the electoral landscape. 100 years ago, that technology was radio. in the second half of the 20th century, of course, it was television. here in the 21st century, with just about everyone connected to the internet, it is social media that has become a pervasive and at times often destructive force in our politics, perhaps never more so than in the run-up to this 2020 campaign. so for more on that, let's turn to cnbc's kayla tausche. >> chuck, we all remember what happened in 2016 when social media platforms became weaponized, used by nameless, faceless individuals, organizations, even foreign countries to manipulate millions of often-unsuspecting users. that kind of interference can undermine the legitimacy of an election, and the big social media companies are on notice not to let it happen again. cnbc's john ford is taking a look at what they're doing about it. >> social media companies have new mindsets and new defenses. this time around, facebook isn't waiting for users to report abuse.

algorithms sniff it out. the company says multiple independent studies show we've cut the engagement with fake news by more than half. the social media powerhouses are trying to avoid an ugly replay of four years ago when they caught heat from both sides of the aisle for leaving their users vulnerable to illegal manipulation. >> we've also learned about how vulnerable social media is to corruption and misuse. the very worst examples of this are absolutely chilling and a threat to our democracy. >> reporter: a report out of the republican-led senate intelligence committee late last year determined that russian agents sought to influence the 2016 u.s. presidential election by harming hillary clinton's chances of success and supporting donald trump. the attackers pretended to be americans while igniting facebook, twitter, and other platforms with inflammatory rhetoric about divisive issues in u.s. society. like the nfl protests or gun rights. their goal, inspire trump supporters to turn out to vote, and get clinton voters to stay home. it's not only facebook that has

dramatically changed its approach to combat improper influence around the election. at twitter, a dedicated team aims to, quote, address threats posed by hostile foreign and domestic actors, and at youtube, they've invested to reduce the spread of harmful misinformation. the companies meet monthly with the fbi and department of homeland security to discuss threats and responses. but there's still plenty of dry tinder on social media for bad actors to try to ignite once again. with coronavirus lockdowns, activism back in sports, and protesters taking to the streets, the country is once again rocked by controversy leading into a major election. and as we saw with the hack on twitter earlier this month, even with new defenses, the social media giants might still be vulnerable. >> that was cnbc's john ford reporting, and he joins us now. you report that facebook has cut its engagement with fake news by more than half, but that means there's still quite a bit of fake news left on that and other

platforms. is there evidence that americans and users of these platforms are becoming more judicious about what they're reading and seeing? >> kayla, i don't know about evidence that people are being more judicious about what they're seeing. but what the platforms are trying to do is be more of a filter and proactively go after users, sometimes even agents of foreign governments that are trying to corrupt the system. even though for us here in america, these political cycles go in two or four years. what these platforms are seeing is their battle is constant. the people who are trying to corrupt the system stay in the system trying to inflame these tensions. so the platforms are trying to find the behaviors of the bad actors so that they can identify them, make sure that their messages don't spread and potentially then flare up at the time of an election when they can do so much damage. >> the bad actors are getting better at what they're trying to

do, too, jon. thank you for that. chuck, you can be sure when the social media companies appear on capitol hill, they're going to be questioned about the integrity of their systems and whether it's possible to truly safeguard them. >> no doubt. jon, i've got a couple of questions for you. one is this idea, i guess facebook has talked about trying to go dark on politics within a window. that is something that international media -- i think israel is one of those countries, for instarnnce, that prevents tv media from doing polling and things like that in the days running up. what is facebook contemplating, and would twitter and other social media platforms follow suit if there was a political dark period before voting? >> they've got very different tacks, different platforms. twitter has said, we're not going to do any political advertising whatsoever. youtube and facebook are still doing that.

facebook says, we've got 35,000 people in our security team going out proactively trying to police this stuff. they've not said that they're going to go dark on political information. and, frankly, at a time like this when we're in a pandemic, there's probably going to be less face-to-face gatherings. we can see that with what's happening with the convention. probably a lot of these campaigns and surrogates are going to be relying on social media and electronic media more than ever to reach voters, from the big candidates to the smaller ones. facebook sees that as part of their role too. how they thread the needle is going to be tricky. >> and one other -- i know you don't have the answer because none of us do -- but election night, as we all know, is likely going to be election month. it's going to take -- it took 28 days for us to get the entire vote counted in the state of pennsylvania for the primary this year. this is the first year they've done almost exclusively mail-in ballots. the rumors, the conspiracy theories during the vote count that could sprout up on social media, are these social media companies aware of that?

that 10- to 12-day period is going to be a dangerous period of misinformation. are they prepared for it? >> chuck, i think that's the sort of thing they are prepared for. that's the sort of thing we can imagine, right? we can draw the lines between what we know is going to happen and you expect the impacts are going to be. that's sort of the world these tech companies and platforms live in. the world they don't live in is, you know, the surprises. we saw that twitter hack where using social engineering, which is a fancy word for a con job, somebody was able to take over major twitter accounts of major public figures. you can imagine something like that happening during the period when people are filling out their ballots. that would be awful. that was something twitter, for example, wasn't looking for. now they are. it's these kinds of things they're trying to think around corners and expect the unexpected at a level that they weren't in 2016, when as we know

they were caught very much flatfooted. >> no, it was definitely a bunch of companies that were a bit naive that their technology could be turned against them. our thanks to kayla tausche and jon fortt of cnbc for that terrific segment. we're back in a moment with what could be key that unlocks victory for either president trump or joe biden this fall and the fierce competition to win it. fierce competition to win it this year, the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's is everywhere.

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♪ winning elections is all about building coalitions. whites, blacks, young, old, working class men, suburban women. the biggest growing demographic in america, latinos or latinx. cristina londono has how it could translate into political power. >> 32 million eligible latino voters in this country, a little over 13% of the total, most of them democrats according to the exit polls from 2016 hillary clinton meat donald trump by better than a 2-1 margin. but president trump has been able to increase his latino voters. that means joe biden cannot take them for granted, especially in some states where the latino vote could determine the political state of this country.

the battle is being waged in spanish. and both the trump and biden camps are focused on three key states. florida, arizona, and texas where the hispanic vote could decide the election. >> the real question is, will they turn out? will the latino community turn out? because if it chooses to turn out, not only can we decide this election, but we can decide the trajectory of where the country goes in the next 20 years. >> reporter: in the past few weeks, president trump has aggressively courted the latino vote. in miami preying on the worst fears of prominent cuban and venezuelan leaders. >> and now joe biden and the radical left are trying to impose the same system, socialism-plus, in america. >> reporter: mr. trump is also trying to run a campaign based on the pre-covid economy. >> that we've had the lowest unemployment numbers for latinos, creating jobs, ensuring that wages increase.

>> reporter: joe biden, in contrast, is focusing on an economy shattered by the pandemic, one that has led to enormous suffering, with more hispanics dying, infected, or out of a job. >> latinos want to have a president who will protect them. the coronavirus has disproportionately infected latino communities. unemployment rates have gone up almost three-fold under this president for latinos. >> reporter: mr. biden is also running on president trump's record, reminding hispanics of the family separations at the border, the wall, and his anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. >> you know, he's quit on you. he's quit on this country. but this election is not just about him. >> reporter: the former vice president is promising a comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. latino advocates point out that remarkably, 100 days before the election, almost half of hispanic voters have not been contacted by either campaign. lack of interest and enthusiasm

among latinos can be especially dangerous to democrats. >> that's how you need to court the latino vote if you're joe biden because it's the turnout that's so key. >> and now to talk about turnout and expectations, we're joined by a woman from the organization that has endorsed joe biden. when we spoke last week, we talked about all of these latino voters who are eligible to vote but haven't registered yet, and this seems like an incredible challenge in the midst of a pandemic where going door to door isn't going that easy. >> cristina, thank you so much for the conversation, first of all. we have to level set. the democratic party has to modernize how they reach out to latinos. voter latino have been able to pivot during the pandemic, seen

a surge in voter registration. the month of june, alone, we registered 97,000 folks. 80% were under the age of 33, and 75% are women. democratic party has to continue having conversations. when we say the democrats have not contacted latinos who back biden, we're talking by big stretches. 59% of latinos who back president trump have been contacted by the party or by the campaign compared to 41% of biden voters who have not been con take itted. so, quite frankly, when we start looking at where the latino community is, it is being decimated by covid. 50% of latinos either do not have a job or have had their hours reduced. close to 30% of the latino community knows someone who has died, sadly, from the covid epidemic. and we are considered the essential workers. but no one is talking to our policies that really will motivate us. voter latino partnered with latino decisions, and we found three things motivating the latino community right now. one is health care. the others is jobs and the economy. the last one was racial

injustice and supporting black lives matter. 75% of latinos support the black lives matter movement. they believe that there's racial injustice and inequity in both the black and latino community. this is where we need -- have the opportunity for the progressive movement, for the biden campaign to really discuss it. to unpack it. but i want to pick up on something that -- that chuck talked about earlier. when we talk about who is eligible to switch this election, it's the latino vote in unlikely places. it's absolutely in texas. it's absolutely in georgia. because just like in virginia, while latino vote was only 4% of the population, georgia's 4% of the population is latino voters, but that created a trajectory of a fast hov lane into a solidly blue state for virginia. georgia has that opportunity as well. biden needs to do more work reaching out. >> maria teresa, let's talk about the immigration issue. we remember the times of president obama, the protests, hey, obama, don't deport my mama. he was known in some parts of

the latino community as the deporter in chief. joe biden is promising a comprehensive immigration reform as did his boss. how can he convince latinos that this time it's for real, that this is not an empty promise? >> the difference right now is that joe biden has promised that they will do this in the first 100 days, and we have the receipts. the latino community has never been more mobilized around the issue of immigration, but we also have very strong allies. the corporate business community recognizes the need for a comprehensive immigration reform. you speak to the evangelical movement. even on the right, they also recognize that there needs to be a pathway to citizenship. so this is an opportunity for joe biden not only to do right but speaking to the core issue right now that concerns latinos. under president trump the latino community has been -- has witnessed the highest increase in hate crimes in over 20 years. every single time trump goes into and does a rally at a local level, whether we're talking

about tulsa, whether we're talking about phoenix, whether we're talking about dallas, the latino community experiences an increase in hate crimes. joe biden would do well to actually have conversations and meet the community where they are. but, again, we have the receipts. we have not only his word, but we have a coalition of people to make sure that he and those in congress will do the right thing. >> thank you, maria teresa kumar from voter latino. and now we go back to chuck. it's a lot to watch. >> it is. i don't want to let maria teresa go here. i want to ask you this. how are you doing? because i talked to a democratic strategist and i said, what makes you lose sleep at night right now? and this person said, the disappointing voter registration numbers this year. and part of that has been pandemic induced and across the board. we've seen -- part of this -- a lot of voter registration campaigns that sort of i think

got knocked back on their socks a little bit -- >> right. >> -- because of the pandemic. the texas senate race went the way it did because there was not an investment in registering latino voters on a grand scale that was necessary. there were little pilot projects but they didn't get there. is it real this time? are they throwing real money? because the voter registration numbers are, you know, you have a good month of june, but it's been, you know, hit or miss. >> so we're -- no, the numbers have been anemic across the board. i have to share with you, though, full disclosure, voter latino, we don't receive any funding from the democratic infrastructure, even though we shockingly register the most voters day in, day out. our funding literally comes from individual donors. and it's because the democratic party has yet to come up to speed that the way you reach individuals is online.

you just had a conversation on how twitter and facebook had potentially disrupt the elections. well, it's because we're now in our homes. we are having conversations with each other online. and that is what the trump campaign has figured out long ago. that is not the case what we're seeing in, sadly, in the democratic town. and that actually -- that's the kind of stuff that actually needs to change. when i share with you that we have had our highest voter registration numbers, we have already surpassed our voter registration numbers in history in the mid of june -- of july. and that's because we have always doubled down. we're a digital need, organization, and that is how we have to talk to our voters. when we know, chuck, that 15 million of latinos are ineligible to vote -- registered -- sorry, 15 million are eligible voters but 10 million are under the age of 33, say speak their language, speak to them in technology, digital natives. register them to vote when they're at home. >> maria teresa kumar, a conversation we had a year ago, and you were talking about, i'm going digital first, i'm doing it all this way, and, lo and

behold, it turns out it's the only way. kudos to having that vision on your part. thank you. kristen welker as well. kayla tausche. and everyone who took part tonight, thank you. all right, folks. 100 days to go. here's some of what to expect. mark these on your calendars. three weeks from now, the start of the democratic convention. we should know who the democratic running mate is by then. one week later the republican convention. thanks to the pandemic, neither is going to look like any convention we've ever seen before. it will all be a lot of boxes, if you will. september 29th, the first scheduled presidential debate, i say scheduled for a reason. eight days later is the vice presidential debate. eight days after that would be the second debate followed by the third and final one one week from there, and then it's a 12-day sprint to the finish line, election day, november 3rd. but keep in mind, it may take weeks of vote counting and political drama before we

actually know the win eric not just for the presidency, but for the house and senate as well. and we're going to be following it all for you on all of the networks of nbc. and as the saying goes, fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. i'm chuck todd. thanks for joining us. can my side be firm? and my side super soft? with the sleep number 360 smart bed, on sale now, you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. so, can it help us fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but can it help keep us asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and

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from coast to coast, there's been escalating violence between protesters and local and federal police, and president trump is seizing on the images of unrest. also flo has reported the most coronavirus cases than new york, which was once the epicenter. right now florida leads the nation with the highest number of infections. and memorials are under way for icon congressman john lewis. yesterday his body crossed the edmund pettus bridge in alabama for the final time as his funeral procession heads toward washington, d.c.