xfinity xfi can because it's simple, easy, awesome. get advanced security free with the xfi gateway. download the xfi app today. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. as the democrats are set to make history, tonight kamala harris takes the stage as the first

black vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket and the daughter of immigrants representing a diverse multiracial background. she will strike themes of inclusivity and equal opportunity. the other headliners tonight, former president barack obama, who will describe his partnership with joe biden over eight years in the white house. and hillary clinton, the first woman to be the party's standard bearer, her speech live and brief from her chappaqua living room, expected to be a searing indictment of the trump record. tuesday night's keynote was delivered bit person who knows joe biden best, his wife, dr. will have biden, serving as a character witness for the man she says held their family together in the aftermath of that tragic loss of his first wife and toddler daughter in a car accident even before he was sworn in as a senator. >> how do you make a broken family whole? the same way you make a nation whole. with love and understanding, and

with small acts of kindness, with bravery, with unwavering faith. you show up for each other in big ways and small ones, again and again. it's what so many of you are doing right now for your loved ones, for complete strangers, for your communities. >> i'm jill biden's husband. as you heard tonight, you can see why she's the love of my wife and the rock of our family. >> the unusual convention featured a roll call unlike any other, cameos from all 50 states and seven territories, declaring their votes for joe biden in unique and memorable ways. nbc white house correspondent and "weekend today" co-host kristen welker is in wilmington, delaware, of course. kristen, take us through what we should expect tonight. >> reporter: andrea, as you say,

this is going to be a history-making night. kamala harris accepts the nomination for vice president. this is a way for her to reintroduce herself to the american people. her parents came to this country, fought as part of this country's civil rights movement, her history as california attorney general general, and the fact that the most important title to her is "momella." she's going to talk about inclusivity and the importance of that. she will also make the case for why joe biden is the best person to lead this country as it relates to the coronavirus and also as it relates to the economy. i think we're going to see kamala harris, the prosecutor, on display, as she prosecutes the case against president trump. this is no longer a candidate, this is now someone who has a record of being in the white

house for more than three years. so expect her to delve into some of that record. and then of course all eyes are going to be on former president barack obama. of course he was the nation's first african-american president, so a history-making speech from him as well. we are told that he is going to talk about this ticket, why he believes these two people as a team are the right choices to lead the country in this moment. and then, andrea, as you say, he's going to speak in very intimate terms about what it is like to work with joe biden in the white house, and their experience trying to pull this country out of a recession, trying to get health care passed, those critical issues will be at the top of the list. and then i am told that president obama is going to make the case that democracy itself is on the line with this election. and he will reiterate what we heard from his wife, former first lady michelle obama, a strong call for everyone to get out and vote.

then from former secretary of state hillary clinton, the nation's first woman to earn her party's nomination for president, she will have that very searing indictment of president trump, more very strong words for the current commander in chief. andrea, i think we are going to have a mix. on the one hand, they will continue their attacks against president trump, but on the other hand, this shift for a real endorsement and a full picture of why not just joe biden but joe biden and kamala harris as a team are the right people to lead the country at this moment, andrea. >> and kristen, this is partly because of our polling and everyone else's polling, their internal polling, that most voters who are against donald trump do not have strong feelings in favor of joe biden. it's more that they would vote for him because they don't like trump. but they need to know more about joe biden himself. certainly dr. jill biden filled in a lot of those gaps with an emotional tribute last night. there's more to come.

they also had average people that people can relate to. i was struck by jacqueline espy, the elevator operator who he went there and met briefly with her for the editorial which he didn't get, but this is what she came away with from that. >> in the short time i spent with joe biden, i could tell he really saw me, that he actually cared, that my life meant something to him. i knew even when he went into his important meeting, he would take my story in there with him. that's because joe biden has room in his heart for more than just himself. >> that was so memorable, that he met her in the elevator, he didn't get their endorsement, but he get her vote. >> reporter: that's right, and you hear the empathy that joe biden has in his ability to connect based on that very personal testimonial. and to your point, andrea, we heard that also from his closest confidant, his wife, as she

talks about the tragedies that he has suffered through and how he rebuilt his family not once but twice. and she says that is why he believes he's the right person to rebuild the country in this moment. it's those personal testimonials that the biden campaign, the democrats, hope will give those voters that you just talked about, andrea, not just something to vote against but someone to vote for, andrea. >> kristen welker, all over the convention from wilmington, former south bend, indiana mayor and democratic presidential candidate pete buttigieg now joins any. mayor pete, it's great to see you again, thanks so much for being with us. you saw so much of joe biden and kamala harris as competitors, behind the scenes, on the debate stages, in the green rooms, perhaps. what did you see, what did you learn about them that you can share that can help voters decide whether they want to choose this ticket? >> well, you know one thing about joe biden, and it was on display in that wonderful nomination speech, he sees everybody the

as you can imagine, there are pretty nervy moments, when we're all getting ready to go out on the debate stage, even during the commercial breaks when we were debating. in the ten debates i experienced with joe biden, he would want to know how you were doing. he would strike up conversations with you. whether he was up, whether i was up, whether somebody else was up, whatever was going on in the polls, he didn't treat you any different. just as much as that, he would be just as eager to talk to the producers or the crew, people working backstage, as he was a u.s. senator or presidential candidate because he sees everybody the same. the main thing i noticed about kamala harris is in addition to the fierce intelligence that you see on display when she's debating, when she's asking questions in the senate, there's also just a level of compassion there. she's somebody who was shaped i think in her own story by that same search for belonging and inclusion that i think is such

an important part of america's story. i'm looking forward to more americans i think seeing and getting to know that side of her story tonight. >> and there your dog is barking his agreement with everything you just said. >> that's right. >> let me ask you about your experience in the military, you share with joe biden a deep knowledge of the military. you personally, and he through his years of service and also through his son beau. what do you infer from that as to his ability to look out for the troops but also look out for america's place in the world? >> the bottom line is that he cares. when he talks about military families, that's not a talking about point for him. he is a military family. to have the experience of giving your son a last hug before he heads downrange on a deployment means a deep, intimate, and personal understanding of the human stakes of the decisions

that someone makes as commander in chief. and it's very rare to have somebody right now, at this level, in politics and government who has that personal experience and as many hours spent in the situation room as vice president biden does. and look, we've got a president right now who has turned his back on the military and on military families, in every possible way, from not supporting the postal service, which is how a lot of veterans get their prescriptions, to sitting on his hands after getting news of russian bounties on american troops. this is somebody who is simply unprepared to look out for the military. this is why increasingly he's losing the respect of typical conservative military leaders and families. and i think that presents an opportunity for joe biden to show what a responsible commander in chief looks like. >> and he's been campaigning so vigorously in person and against -- and on twitter against mail-in voting. today he tweeted an all-caps tweet this morning, "continuing

to fight mail-in voting, if you can protest in person, you can vote in person," which seems to ignore the pandemic, the fears that people have of going out, especially older people, the lack of a sufficient number of poll workers. what's the situation on the postal service even with the suspension, we are told at least, of these cuts right now, they didn't say they were rolling back the previous cuts or restoring the commitmenequip. what's happening in rural indiana where people, as everywhere, rely on the postal service? >> even the president didn't vote in person. if it's good enough for the president and vice president, if it's good enough for people serving overseas, obviously it's how i voted when i was deployed, it's good enough for every american. and look, the postal service is not something that should ever be political. i am concerned, it's good news to see them backing away from this plan, but are they going to put back the machines that were taken out? i know there's some mailboxes right here in south bend,

illinois that were marked for closure. i want to go back and see if they've reversed that. look, just some of the basic indications of whether a country is doing well. i mean, we're talking about really basic measures through history of how civilization develops, it's stuff like how are you at tackling disease, and how are you at delivering mail. i mean, we're talking about the very basics. and for the president to be undermining that really undermines our entire country, our democracy, our ability to function. and you don't have to be a diehard democrat to know that there's something wrong with a president attacking our postal system. >> i also want to ask you about notre dame, because you're a faculty fellow, i believe, there now. and now they've had to roll back their plan to have students on campus. was it naive to think that they could pull this off? what do you think went wrong? >> what they've announced is a two-week suspension of any

in-person classes. then i think they'll make any determination after that. that he had a careful plan committed to trying to find a way to do safe, in-person instruction, because there really is nothing like in-person learning. they sett up a daily protocol fr screening, an elaborate setup for testing. but in the end, there's still the human factor. and if just individuals aren't prepared to cooperate with the plan and support that plan in those individual choices, then it just won't work. so unfortunately, that could mean that this plan won't work out. i would love to be able to be in a room with my students, getting to know them in person. but if we have to do it through technology, then obviously safety has to come first. >> and you've been raising a lot of money for joe biden. are you going to be an active campaigner for the ticket? >> absolutely. i have been since i stepped out of the race myself. i want to look back on 2020 and know that i did everything in my

power to support the biden/harris team. and we have an organization called win the era, there's more information at win,ttheera.com, helping candidates up and down the ticket, we want to make sure we don't treat the presidency as the only office that matters. i loved last night seeing so many leaders, including emerging leaders, i can't believe i'm old enough to say this now, but leaders from a generation younger than mine, add to go the diversity of the party. i'm going to do everything i can to help the candidates i believe in. 2020 has been rough, to put it mildly, it's been bleak in many ways. but the most important moment that's going to write the ending of the story in 2020, that's a moment that is yet to come, that's the november elections. i think we could actually look back at 2020 as a moment that

really led to good things in our country. but that's no guarantee, we've got to put in the work. >> thank you so much, thank you for everything you're doing, and let's stay in touch. we want to hear from you again, i hope so, as we go forward. thanks very much, mayor pete. and her story. it's kamala harris's night in the spotlight. how the first black and south asian woman on a major party ticket is going to make her case, the case that it is time for change in the white house. still to come, the last democratic vice presidential nominee, senator tim kaine, sharing his unique perspective on the stress that's probably on kamala harris right now, and reacting to the startling new revelations about the trump campaign's interactions with russia in 2016. stay with us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. when you shop with wayfair, you spend less

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republican chair michael steele, and chris lu, who is currently a delegate to the democratic convention. yamiche, a lot of people don't know kamala harris even though she ran her president. her campaign ran out of steam even before the first voting. so this is a very big opportunity for her. >> this is a big opportunity and a big night. you're right that there are a lot of people who are very familiar with kamala harris, senator harris, when it comes to washington, d.c., when it comes to california. but i remember reporting on her in south carolina and there were people who simply did not know who she was. so i think this is really an opportunity for her to introduce herself. i think, as someone who's interviewed her a couple of times, we'll probably hear about her upbringing, her immigrant parents, her father being from jamaica, her mother from india. she's told me a lot of her character, her understanding, the power she has in this world comes from a mother who did not coddle her, who really taught

her the power and the agency that she had as a woman. she's going to be talking also i think about the idea of her background as a prosecutor and why she took that career given the fact that there is some misgivings about whether or not she was too hard on people, especially african-american men, thinking of imprisonment and how show handled policing. so i think she has to do a lot in this speech, a lot that have is also bringing together the progressive wing of the party with the more moderate wing of the party. the democrats have a big umbrella party. she'll be talking about that. the last thing she'll talk about of course is just how historic her nomination is and what she means when she embodies someone who is biracial, who has all of this background, and is of course a woman. >> and the other theme last night that really stood out was national security, that joe biden has the experience and that there were validaters who included republicans, not only in the collection of former republican officials who were shown, national security officials and state department

officials who are nonpartisan, but colin powell and cindy mccain. cindy mccain talking about joe biden's unlikely friendship with john mccain across party lines, certainly, and colin powell last night, the former head of the joint chiefs, chair of the joint chiefs, and secretary of state. >> joe biden will be a president that we will all be proud to salute. with joe biden in the white house, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends and stand up to our adversaries, never the other way around. he will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots. he will stand up to our adversaries with strength and experience. >> michael steele, at a time when the democrats need to unite their party, the bernie sanders wing, aoc and the other progressives, is this a good strategy? there were a lot of republicans in this convention, kasich the first night, and a former republican, at least, colin powell, and of course the mccain

tribute as well. >> yeah, no, i think it's a smart strategy, because this is not an election, so that we're all clear here, this is not an election about big policy. this is not an election about, you know, the nuances of, you know, a particular form of legislation or a bill. this is about the heart and soul of the country. this is, you know, a referendum not just on president trump. this is a referendum on us as americans, at citizens. how much of our power are we willing to cede over to the likes of a donald trump, now or in the future? so i think having someone like a colin powell, having a governor kasich, and certainly lifting up, again, the memory of john mccain, who, you know, no one could ever question where john mccain stood, because he stood first with the country. i think that's a narrative, regardless of whether you are

aoc or anyone else inside the democratic party, that that's something to rally around. we can have the fight, andrea, and we will, on the other side of a biden administration. there's no doubt about that. and i don't think any of the individuals, the republicans that you've heard over the last couple of days, came out and endorsed any specific policy of joe biden. they're talking more broadly. let's have the fight on policy. but first we've got to deal with the character of the nation. we've got to deal with who we are as citizens and what kind of leaders we want to take us into the future. >> and health care, of course, a big part of that. the affordable care act that joe biden was, you know, so instrumental in helping to pass. i thought one of the most emotional moments was ady barkan who lost his voice to als, backing biden. we heard him speaking before he lost his voice and then using the computer voice.

>> after i was diagnosed, the president passed a tax bill that put my health care at risk. so i went to washington, d.c. >> democracy is beautiful! >> today we are witnessing the tragic consequences of our failing health care system. even during this terrible crisis, donald trump and republican politicians are trying to take away millions of people's health insurance. >> and we've just learned, this, as we say, breaking news, the supreme court will be hearing arguments on november 10, the week after the election, on major cases which would involve basically eliminating obamacare, the affordable care act, the week after the election. it is a major case. oral arguments. repeal of the obamacare act. so, chris lu, a lot at stake. >> a lot is at stake. this is an issue for joe biden,

health care, that's not just a policy issue, it's a personal issue. it's something he had to deal with when his first wife passed away. joe biden has had his own health issues. he's always talked about the importance of having government health care, as a u.s. senator, and obviously seeing his own son pass away as well. he understands this as a father, as a husband as well. he played a critical role in the passage of the affordable care act in 2010. he famously said this was a "bfd." he's said what's at strakake, i the over 150 million people with preexisting conditions. he will contrast his vision of health care, how he wants to expand it, versus the way the current administration has consistently tried to undercut the affordable care act, even during a pandemic that has affected over 5 million people, and their continued efforts in the supreme court to strike this down. and what this means, not just

for people at stake in this country who need health care, but more broadly what it says about us as americans. we can't have affordable, accessible health care for people. he's going to frame this in terms of a broader vision of america. >> it's a timely comment, chris lu and michael steele and yamiche alcindor, thanks to all. up next, return to sender? postmaster general louis dejoy reversing course, now suspending the operational changes he had announced for the post office until after the election. but is that enough? what about rolling back the cuts that have already gone in? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. is is "al reports" only on msnbc and we'll replace your windshield with safe, no-contact service. >> tech: schedule at safelite.com. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ wabba wabba! all new, plant powered creative roots gives kids

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california's economic challenges are deepening. frontline workers stretched too thin. our nurses and medical professionals in a battle to save lives. our schools, in a struggle to safely reopen, needing money for masks and ppe, and to ensure social distancing. and the costs to our economy, to our state budget? mounting every day. we need to provide revenues now, to solve the problems we know are coming.

the postmaster general is reversing course, now saying that changes to the post office have been suspended at least until after the election, quote, to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail. this after a public outcry because of trump ally and republican mega donor louis dejoy's controversial cost-cutting measures. what about the removal of sorting machines and mailboxes that's already taken place? nbc's geoff bennett is covering the issue. geoff, what have you learned? >> reporter: andrea, i can tell you that as a result of that public outcry, louis de joy had an emergency meeting with the postal service board of governors on saturday and monday. so much has been said and

reported about the fact that dejoy is a republican mega donor. all six of the board of governors are trump-appointed and five of the six have extensive political, legal, or financial links to president trump. we don't know what was said in those meetings because the meetings were private. but we do know is a some three days after that monday meeting, we got this announcement from the postmaster general that he was going to suspend the operational changes that had led to the delays. one of the main questions is, if he knows his changes, his policy changes, led to the delays, why just suspend them, why not scrap them altogether? postal workers, union reps i've talked to say they view his restructuring as an attempt to ultimately privatize the postal service. in at least one facility, here is a picture of a mail processing plant in henrietta, new york. i'm told the mail in this

facility is what then goes out to all of rochester county, new york. and a postal employee gave us this picture. and andrea, as you know, this is a big deal because it's against the law to take pictures of the mail, but that bin you see there with the pink tag that says "august 7, 2020," this picture was taken on august 16. so for nine days, that bin sat unsorted. the postal employee says a bin like that, before dejoy's changes, would have been sorted the day of. but it has to be hand-sorted, and there were no hands to sort it because of the cuts to overtime, andrea. >> geoff, that really is such incriminating evidence, the visual evidence of that. thanks for bringing that to us. joining me now is democratic congresswoman elisa slotkin of michigan, who just came from a lansing, michigan post office. that picture alone certainly raises a lot of alarm bills. what did you see at the lansing post office, what are you hearing from your stilts? constituents? >> we definitely didn't see

anything like that, thankfully. right now we're hearing an unending stream of calls into our offices, worried about the post office in general, but voting, but really about prescription drugs and the number of people, particularly the number of veterans who depend on the postal service to get their regular prescription drugs, their medical devices, and the anxiety that people are feeling because packages are either late or they're concerned they will be late. so it's kind of the talk of the town right now. everybody is talking about it, because it affects every single one of us. >> and according todetroit, the postal service has removed ten sorting machines from the detroit area, at least. are you able to find out whether they'll go back or whether they're just gone? >> that's some of the confusion from the reversal by the postmaster general, suspension, in suspended animation.

we don't even if that means devices that were taken out of our postal office will be returned. we don't know exactly what this means for a lot of the boxes that were removed. frankly he was silent on the matter of whether he can close down post offices full stop, sort of take them out of rotation. we're trying to get clarification. we have a bunch of hearings that he's committed to doing both friday and later in the house next week. we're voting this saturday on a big bill to make the post office solvent, which is, again, the strategic issue here. but it's very hard to get good, accurate information. right now i'm glad he's reversed course, that's because of public pressure. but we need more details. >> and those sorting machines alone apparently handle 300,000 pieces of first class mail an hour. and the vote on saturday, with all due respect, it's mostly symbolic, it won't be taken up by the senate anytime soon, so you're going on record, but that's not going to reverse anything, and certainly not before election day.

but i do want to move on to the intelligence report from the republican-led -- the bipartisan report which tells us so much more, much more than the mueller report, which was focused on criminal behavior. it says basically that the former chairman of the trump 2016 campaign, paul manafort, was a counterintelligence risk. you have a cia and a pentagon background. that in fact he was closely connected to a russian intelligence officer whom he went into business with afterwards, that he may well have known about the hacking and the wikileaks connection into the democrats, and that that hacking was ordered specifically by vladimir putin. that all being the case, and it's already being discounted by the white house, and the white house was even talking about a summit with putin before the election. >> it adds a lot of color and detail into a story that's been going on for a long time.

and i think the thing that just got me about it is, you know, if you know that there are foreigners trying to impact an american election, what are your responsibilities as a citizen to come forward and say something about that? i know that was one of the big takeaways and recommendations of this bipartisan report, watts tt if you're approached by a foreign nation, it's your responsibility as a citizen to report it. to see that the president spoke with vladimir putin i think every other week this spring, five times between march 30 and june 3, i think that's the hardest part, was to see the president cozying up to president putin at the time when we know there's an influence

campaign that continues. so it's disturbing as an intelligence officer. it seems crazy to be talking about this idea that we are sort of like looking at the language around how much influence the russians had over, you know, our political leaders. that should be absolutely abhorrent to every american. >> congresswoman slotkin, thank you very much. thanks for being with us today. this year, how you vote is as important as who you vote for. our interactive state by state plan your vote guide has everything you need to know about casting your ballot in this pandemic. find it at nbcnews.com/planyourvote. coming up next, we'll hear from voters in wisconsin where the president pulled off a narrow 2016 victory. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. find pants that aren't sweats. find your friends.

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today vice president mike pence is in wisconsin visiting what could have been a reliably red county in a battleground state, formerly a swing state. this is aimed at energizing a loyal base of trump voters in a state he won by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016 but it was one of the three critical states that put him over the top. in darien, nbc's garrett haake found out just how hard core these loyalists are. >> the only thing that would shake my faith, if he cheated on his wife and lied to our country in some way. in any way. >> reporter: you know, there are fact checkers who say he's lying a lot. >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: it didn't trouble you? >> i partially read those -- hmm. it always seems like they're twisting that truth around or they're bending what he says around. then again, he might be bending a little things too. >> reporter: it sounds like

you're inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. >> yeah, there you go. >> garrett haake joins me now from darien, wisconsin. garrett, do you find that people there, this county is solid red? >> reporter: yeah, andrea, "solid" doesn't really describe it. this county has voted republican for president in the last hundred years. the fact that the president is campaigning here today tells you something about the president's strategy. it says the persuasion phase of this campaign, if indeed we can argue there ever was one, is over and now we're in the turnout phase. when you're in a state like wisconsin where the results were as close as they were in 2016, turnout is absolutely everything. you need the people like the gentleman who i just talked to who believe in this president no matter what, to be sure to cast their ballots. you are playing a turnout game. you're playing a game of trying to squeeze as much support as you can out of your core supporters. i talked to the republican county chairman here who told me

there's still an element of trump supporters who aren't quite ready to be public about it and will come out and that could be the difference in the polling numbers here that show joe biden ahead. here is what the county chairman told me. >> the silent majority is not so silent anymore? >> i think there's still a lot more of them that are silent. but there are more and more people that are coming out that are seeing the good that the president has done and the agenda that he's carried forward and they're saying, you know what, this is the guy, we've got to keep him for another four years. >> reporter: andrea, if i have to summarize the republican voters i talked to, the trump supporters here, it's the "this is the guy" comment, more so any specific policy, these people feel like they're on the same team as the president, they're part of a club with him and they're going to stay with him absolutely no matter what. >> garrett haake, thank you very much, in wisconsin. next, from one running mate to another. former vice presidential

candidate tim kaine, senator kaine joins me ahead of senator kamala harris' big night. kamala harris' big night no sweat! try it and love it or get your money back.

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mother is from india. her maternal uncle in india shared the joy. >> i feel happy, my family feels happy. her daughter. so it's an historic day in a number of ways for the indian community. >> a very big day in india. they'll be watching. joining us, democratic senator tim kaine of virginia, hillary clinton's running mate in 2016, also serves on the armed services and foreign relations committee. senator, welcome. just how much pressure is there on kamala harris tonight? how did you feel back then? >> there's a lot of pressure, but kamala's a pro. you know, this is an occasion where many americans have some impression of her from her campaigns in california and campaign for president. but most don't know her very well. it's a wonderful opportunity for her because she has such a

powerful story both professionally and being a public servant in some amazing ways, but also the daughter of an indian american mom and a jamaican american dad. the child of immigrants who understands the dreams of immigrants trying to break the glass ceiling 100 years after america gave women the right to vote. it's a personal story that is just a wonderful match for the moment. and i think americans are going to be really captivated by that. >> now president trump floated the false notion tuesday that fraud is going to lead to an election do-over for mail-in voting. let's play that for you. >> absentee is great. but universal is going to be a disaster the likes of which our country has never seen. it will end up being a rigged election, or there will never come out with an outcome. they'll have to do it again. and nobody wants that. and i don't want that. >> i've never heard a president talking about a do-over for the

presidential election. it can't be done -- >> america would love it if we could have a do-over of last four years and especially the last six months with the death toll that's now getting near 170,000 and an economic intraction unlike we've ever seen. you're right, there's no such thing as a do-over, and the t president's claims that if he didn't win in 2016 because of fraud demonstrates he's already worried he's going to lose and is trying to set up an excuse for himself. >> and maybe trying to suppress the vote, as well. tim, i want to ask you about the russia report. that report from senate intel was pretty striking. goes well beyond mueller, paints a portrait of paul manafort as a counter intelligence -- he's in jail nail, he's been tried and convicted on charges. this lays out his connection to

constantine kolimnik, a counter intelligence officer and one he was in business with as he left the campaign. i want to share an interview he did when he was chairing the campaign in may of 2016. paul manafort. do your clients, your past clients or current clients conflict in any way with the unclassified intelligence briefings that donald trump as the nominee is going to get? >> well, i have no other clients except for donald trump to start with. and i'm not getting the briefings. he's getting the briefings. >> and what about your past clients? >> i don't have any more clients. >> so that was just a hint of what we were thinking when we looked at his background. now we know it in startling detail. >> and remember that both paul manafort and roger stone were willing to lie or stonewall and accept the criminal consequences of that rather than cooperate and tell the truth because had they told the truth, they were

worried that the consequences would be so shocking to the public and so harmful to president trump. and what i'm saying to my colleagues is, remember this occurred when donald trump was a candidate but without official power. now it's the same donald trump, but he has official power to screw up the post office, to preach false stories of fraud in the mail, to preach a racial -- racist birther lie about kamala harris' citizenship. i'm telling all my colleagues, this is the fight of our life. we have a man in donald trump who will stop at absolutely nothing to win, even if it hurts our country. and that means we have to make this the most concerted effort to win an election that we'll ever engage in in our entire lives. >> and although the polls still show biden ahead, it's by in most polls, in fact the average of polls, a shrinking margin. this could be a perilous time

especially without, as you would expect, the convention bounce from all the hoopla of a real convention which they had wanted to hold in wisconsin which is a critical state. >> absolutely. look, and just the whole campaign dynamic with coronavirus, i'm just thinking, wow, what if i were on the ballot like running for senate this year, i was re-elected in 2018 so i'm not on the ballot. how would i do it? everything i know how to do in campaigns are things that would be hard to do right now. but i'll tell you what we're excited about in virginia, and i think other states had this, too, voters had multiple ways to vote. in virginia you can vote in person, by mail, you can get a ballot by mail and deliver that ballot in person, or you can vote on election day. and i think what we're going to do is do everything we can to get people to avail themselves of the early vote options so that if anybody tries to screw around with them and say you're not registereded or you're at a different address, you have a chance to fix that before

election day. in virginia you can register up to october 13th. early votes starts september 18th. we made it to get as many people in the door as early as we can to make sure there are no problems to get in folks' way. >> senator, always a pleasure. thank you so much for being with us today. >> thank you. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." the convention tonight. msnbc will have complete coverage of the democratic national convention all day. and our prime time coverage begins at 7:00. and i'll be over on nbc news on your local nbc station with lester holt, savannah guthrie, and chuck todd. first, an early preview. chuck is up next for the new hour of "mtp daily." every day at 1:00 here on msnbc. . ...to soccer practices... ...and new adventures. you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past... they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b.

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if it's wednesday, senator kamala harris is gearing up to officially become the first woman of color in american history to accept a major party's nomination as vice president of the united states. what this moment means for the campaign and the country. plus, the postmaster general promises no changes to operation until after the election. democrats and some high-profile current usps officials say it's not enough. think to trust but verify on this one. welcome to wednesday, it is "meet the press