hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east with 19 days to go before the polls close. millions of americans have already cast their ballots across this country. polls show donald trump down by double digits nationally over and over and over again. playing defense in every battle

ground states. record fund-raising guarantees joe biden can stay on the air in any state he wants. turn out numbers and voter registration points to encouraging times for the biden side. today there's a new warning from biden's campaign manager who said there's still a long way to go in this campaign and we think this race is far closer than folks think. indeed an opinion column in the "new york times" cites potential causes for the concern including data published recently by the house editor for the cook political report that shows that donald trump, not joe biden, is winning in the voter registration battle. florida added more than 195,000 republicans and 98,000 democrats. pennsylvania since june

republicans plus 135,000, democrats under 58,000. north carolina since march republicans up 84,000, to democrats 38,000. in arizona the exception democrats out registered republicans 31,000 to 29,000. of course those warning signs do nothing to erase the swath of good polls and other good signs for biden coming out of every level of state polling. a new nbc news "wall street journal" poll shows biden with an 11-point lead nationally. biden is way ahead in georgia and new hampshire and tied in ohio and south carolina. trump was on the ground in north carolina earlier this afternoon in a state he desperately needs. "the washington post" describes his failure to mount a coherent argument. none of that according to the

biden campaign is enough to merit complacency. bi biden's campaign manager, the next few weeks are going to be hard. i tell my team we can do hard things. we start with some of our favorites. ni nick, i start with you. matthew dowd was our pollster when i worked on a campaign. matthew can be troubled to describe sort of his political world view. he was in a hoodie with it pulled over his head on election day. we took nothing for granted. i've heard from the obama team,

they took nothing for granted in terms of their get out the vote efforts, in terms of overnight tracks. one read is this is a smart experienced campaign. the other is maybe they're seeing something in the data that has them worried. what do you think? >> this is as strange and chaotic a period in american politics as i've ever covered in my career. things happen that are not expected over and over again. anyone who has followed a campaign before, or run one, is going to think about seeing those numbers getting closer towards the end. there's always that return of disaffected republicans or democrats. i think caution is in order. i will say it's a sign of how the alignment of politics in this country has changed that biden is further ahead in georgia than in ohio. it's just stunning to watch the country change in real time.

>> yes. you know, to that point, parker, i know that trump campaign manager bill stepien -- i know the arizona numbers troubled him weeks and months ago. i continued to ask campaign a advisers what they think is going on in arizona. they say well the country is changing. the idea that arizona, as we sit here today, they're out of reach. the map seems to be in a different place than it usually is 19 days out. >> absolutely. not just different than it usually is 19 days out, but different than when the trump campaign began in earnest and were holding all these

conference calls. it's reminiscent to what we saw hillary clinton do. it turns out instead of devoting time to places she should have been like in wisconsin, he was expanding the democratic footpri footprint. the polls are far closer than they would feel comfortable. you're seeing the president returning to a smaller group of states, some states that he won handedly just four years ago to try to shore up a base and shore up support that just months ago they felt like they could take for granted. >> you know, this is also a time -- it is so hard to wrestle with the inner campaign operative in me. i'm hard wired to not sleep 20 days before a presidential election regardless of whether i'm working on a campaign or

not. it's so interesting to me, kim, the choices campaigns make in their final days. even through all its chaos, the trump campaign is making choices. he chooses to wage a daily war against his own cabinet, against bill barr for not prosecuting unmasking, against mike pompeo for not releasing hillary's emails. here's how ashley's paper writes up some of this message. just this month trump called the democratic vice presidential nominee a monster, retweeted images of a man being shot, suggested that gold star families may have infected him with a virus. amplified a conspiracy theory questioning osama bin laden's death. attacked the nation's leading infectious disease expert. announced a complete withdrawal

for troops from afghanistan. then restarted talks on a stimulus program for more money than his party embraced. >> it's like a fast forward view of his first term as president. in that sense he's directly on message, the same sort of overloaded, all over the place message we've seen him govern with. that's what he's campaigning on now. you're seeing that the campaign and the candidate will making choices. they're making separate choices. it was the campaign that wanted to see him do a pivot. i have been saying for five years now that donald trump isn't going to pivot. anyone including those on his campaign wait for it do so in peril. they have hoped his infection with covid-19 would give him the

chance to pivot and connect with all those people in the united states who have had it or lost a loved one. we're coming up on 225,000 deaths from covid-19. he didn't want to do that. he didn't even want to wear a mask after being hospitalized with it. instead he wants to get back to the message where he swings and swipes at his opponents. he name calls. he name called his way through the 2016 campaign. he's falling right back into that line. we've seen him viciously attack people within his own administration. it's remarkable. the one thing i'm surprised by -- it's hard for me to be surprised -- is how upset he has been with attorney general barr, someone who has gone above and beyond to do his bidding, to be right in line with him in terms of policy and politics. he still hasn't even done enough according to donald trump for

failing to, i guess, not bringing charges against barack obama. we're seeing donald trump be pure donald trump. there's very little runway left for this campaign to maneuver and change. you know, it seems it's a lot less likely that it's going to be a clear take off for this campaign. >> look, nick, i've been cured of my expectations for a pivot. there was a need for an adjustment when the pandemic hit and when the economy that donald trump thinks he built -- we know he didn't build the economy. some of his voters give him the credit. they needed to make adjustments. where they're struggling isn't because trump didn't become someone different. they're struggling because donald trump doesn't say anything different. the coalition -- i've said this a million times -- we spent too

much time talking about his base voter and not his coalition. his base loves they're still looking for hillary's emails even though the country is struggling. the trump coalition wants to hear more than the update on the hunt for hillary's emails. >> i mean, look, it's hard to recall this now, nicolle, in 2016 trump was pretty on message in his campaign. it was crooked hillary and it was in some ways the classic change message for an outsider candidate. right now trump is campaigning in the manner of a guy who spends too much time in twitter. he speaks in code. it's burisma and clinton emails. he's making jokes about old people and he's losing jokes from old people. he's talking about prosecuting obama. this is only persuasive to

people who are already converted. it it's not if you're a swing voter. >> joe biden is doing what michelle obama may have envisioned when she said when they go low, we go high. they're closing on a patriotic message, a very united message. it's not a negative message. it's the ad that presidential campaigns make and they move it into rotation like sunday before the election. they usually can't afford to pull down their contrast ads at this point. we're 20 days out. can we put up the ad the biden campaign put up? ♪ there's a new mankind

>> it's time for america to get back up. ♪ there's a brand new moment >> we can build a more perfect union. ♪ that belongs to me >> the days of divisiveness will soon be over. ♪ that belongs to me >> let's get back up! ♪ a new world is coming >> we're decent, we're resilient people. >> ashley parker, joe biden closing with a message there on the screen saying vote by mail. people wearing their i voted, closing on an american message, closing on patriotism, closing on honor, closing on bipartisan ship, closing on ruth bader ginsburg's legacy. >> it's a great message and

great ad. it's reflective of the fact that joe biden from the beginning -- a lot of candidates have struggled with how to engage president trump. joe biden has made this decision for better or worse that he had a theory of the case, a vision of how this would play out. he really hasn't deviated from it. he got into the race because of the president's response to charlottesville. he believes this is a battle for the soul of the nation. that is sort of the more optimistic version of that you see in that ad. the vice president has made a number of bets -- so has the president. one is on their handling of coronavirus from wearing masks, being careful, being cautious, socially distancing. if you look at joe biden's running mate, kamala harris two staffers testifying positive and the way she's handled that.

you're seeing a campaign confident in their message and hopes it will pay dividends on election day. >> when you make these bets -- ashley is right. you can't separate them from a candidate. a candidate who isn't on board with an ad strategy is a candidate not comfortable with his own campaign. a lot of this -- whether it works or not is on joe biden. this is the campaign he wanted to run. if you look at all the polls and my colleague steve kornacki has an analysis that this range -- every national poll is 8 to 14. it averages about 9 to 11. at this range the electoral map becomes almost out of reach under most scenarios for donald trump. at this point, at this moment in time, it's a bet that seems to be paying off. >> it does.

i mean, i have -- i'm very skeptical of any poll. i've learned to be that as a reporter. i've also learned that 20 days is an inteeternity in our polit climate. what we're seeing is the closer we get to -- i don't call it election day anymore. it's election season. the closer you get to the end of this you're seeing the candidates more crystallize into who they are. you're seeing donald trump defiant, attacking all his political enemies, real and perceived, screaming at packed rallies. you're seeing joe biden hone in. this is the type of campaign he wanted to run. it wasn't quibbling about medicaid for all or obama care.

it's about talking about the kind of nation that americans want to see and the leader he wants to be. he wants to be the leader that restores the soul of america. that's what the ad said. that's what his closing message will be and the hope that people will go out in record numbers to say that that is the kind of america they want. if that stays on track, it's good news for joe biden. i don't trust polls. we'll see what happens. >> i want to align myself with kim atkins. i feel the same way. at the same time the polls exist. there are polls. we must cover the polls. the bide campaign, i thought the tweet last night was extraordinary. saying we're with kim atkins. we don't believe the polls. everybody is sticking around. it's a different campaign out there for sure. senator kamala harris pulling herself from the campaign trail for the rest of the week because

of her proximity to two positive coronavirus cases. we'll talk about how different her response is from the other side and if it matters 19 days out. speaking of the virus is the country climbing to a third peak of infections. what some suggest we should do about it. plus new york governor andrew cuomo joins us. all those stories and more. don'go anywhere. joe doesn't need to be the center of attention. or see himself on tv. he has always focused on getting the job done. joe led us out of the 2008 recession, and increased health coverage for millions. as president, joe will focus on getting us out of our crises. he'll listen to experts, work across the aisle.

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senator kamala harris has suspended in-person campaign events until monday after two people involved with the campaign tested positive for covid. biden's campaign manager said harris was not in close contact with the individuals in the two days prior to their positive test so was not quarantining, but they're doing so anyway out of an abundance of caution. this afternoon the campaign announced that senator harris and vice president biden have tested negative for coronavirus. navigating how to campaign during a pandemic is something the vice presidential candidate addressed last night when speaking with rachel maddow. >> do you feel case campaigning during covid? >> we've been very safe. again, the president has made fun of us but we wear masks.

we practice social distancing. the events are -- it's -- we're -- i would like to hug people. you don't hug people these days. you can't shake hands, but you can look people in the eye. you can listen. you can be there. i think it's important to be where the people are, but to do it in a way that does not cause them to be risk. we're working it out. it's definitely a different campaign than anything we've done before. we're making the best of it. people are engaged. >> you know, kim atkins, the remarkable thing about that answer is she seemed to struggle with how blunt to be. she said we like to hug people and shake their hands. we can't do that. there isn't a person that isn't experiencing, if not the loss of something, the inconvenience or the change in the way they connect with people. i thought that was a very honest

answer. i think she also said in a self-deprecating way, look, they make fun of us. it's true. in the last debate 40 hours he could have been positive by then. donald trump was not just mocking joe biden for wearing a mask, but sneering at the audacity that joe biden put masks on whenever he spoke. what do you think about this as a campaign issue? >> look, i think you have to remember that for many americans they have been living with this in a way that's made it difficult for them to even connect with their own family and their neighbors. americans right now are trying to -- dr. fauci today said his own children aren't coming to thanksgiving dinner to see him. this is a time where americans are making really tough choices about how close they get. at the same time it's a campaign. they have to figure out how to connect with voters in the

middle of a pandemic. you can see the difficulty of that as senator harris was explaining it. i mean, this morning when i went for a run and i run in the middle of the street to stay away from everyone i saw a canvasser literally knocking on doors and backing up quickly, 10 or 15 feet, and shouting to the person in the house. this is difficult for everyone to do. you're certainly seeing senator harris reflect that. it's a disadvantage to come off the campaign trail for several da days, but it's clear that's the priority that the biden/harris campaign is making. >> in contrast, ashley parker, here's new video of hope hicks and mark meadows traveling with the president today without masks. mark meadows doesn't like them. hope hicks has had covid and

ostensibly recovered. this team never passes up the opportunity to model the wrong behavior. >> not just that, but according to the white house pool president trump came back to the press cabin last night to speak for about ten minutes without a mask. you're right. this is a campaign in a white house that is intentionally modelling bad behavior. they say the president has been cleared by his doctors. he's no longer contagious. presumably that's the case with hope hicks and mark meadows. when you're the president and someone in the president's orbit, what you do and how you carry yourself, if you go above and beyond, it's so symbolic and so meaningful. this is another one of these very different choices the two campaigns have made.

the president will have these rallies that feel like before times. packed together, not social distancing and generally not wearing masks. and joe biden and kamala harris are well beyond the cdc guidelines when trump makes fun of them for having an event with half dozen people, that's by design. we don't know if joe biden could get trump's crowds, but he's intentionally getting crowds of seven or eight people. they're betting that voters and undecided voters think they're making the right choice. >> ashley is so right. the verdict is not in yet on which one is the correct political bet. all the science makes it abundantly clear that the bet to save american lives, the bet to save american grandparents.

the bet to save any child suffering from an auto immune disorder, the bet is to wear a freakin' mask. nick, what is the defiance and coded impact of the mask defiance? i still can't pull that thread and comprehend it. >> i think it all comes down to the message the president is sending about himself and gets translated to republican leaders. he believes wearing a mask makes him look weak. he's been clear about that and doesn't want to wear one. he's modelling for the entire country and the top people in his party that masks are bad. i think it's fair to wonder if the president had instead tried to model the idea that masks are fine and good and will save lives how many fewer americans would be dead right now. i don't know how many, but it's not fair to wonder if the

behavior had been different if some lives could have been saved. >> you know, nick, i led the 5:00 hour yesterday with the "new york times" article suggesting the white house is embracing herd immunity. all the scientists said if this is the path the country heads down 2 million more people could be dead. it's seems plausible when you see them not just defying the science, but when you see recently infected people maskless. i have a twinge of sympathy for the white house staffers. if they wear a mask in the oval office, they risk getting here head ripped off by their boss. we're all living in the reality the president has created where he's sending a signal to his followers and allies that masks are bad. that's a tragedy. >> it sure is. nick, ashley, kim, thank you so

much for starting us off today. after the break how the nation's frontline workers are responding to the surge in coronavirus cases in this country. this administration and senate republicans want to overturn laws requiring insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. they're rushing a lifetime appointment to the supreme court to change the law through the courts. 70% of americans want to keep protections for pre-existing conditions in place. tell our leaders in washingtn to stop playing games with our healthcare. [ engine rumbling ] [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right?

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don't got your backs. they don't see what we see. >> wear a mask. do whatever you cannot to catch this. >> nurses this week sounding the alarm. this is the desperate pleas we heard all the way back in march. more than 17 million have been infected by coronavirus. more troubling, cases are rising in every state. according to john hopkins cases are rising in 40%. dr. anthony fauci is begging americans to double down. here he was last night on the reasons cases are still so high. >> what we really have to do is double down on the things that i

talk about every single day. the five issues -- universal wearing of masks, keeping your distance, avoiding crowds, trying to do things outdoors, preferentially over indoors, washing your hands frequently. they sound simple, but people are not doing that. that's the reason why we're seeing the uptick in cases. >> let's bring in dr. bedelia. she's a physician at boston medical center. she learned more about helicopters when donald trump took one to walter reed. doctor, i think i've been snapped out of thinking we're in a plateau. we're not. we're seeing cases spike in most of the country. how did we get -- i don't want to say back here.

the first spikes were localized in new york and a couple other hot spots. how is covid raging throughout most of the country? >> good afternoon, nicolle. you nailed it. what's different about this time is we're seeing these increases because of the many reasons we talked about before because we have this pandemic fatigue. th the worrisome part of this is as opposed to more localized outbreaks in the northeast and the south, this is a national -- now it's looking like a national emergency. not only that but in the last seventh seven days, the most hit areas are in rural counties. much more easy to overwhelm and you're seeing places like wisconsin build hospitals. there's one outside milwaukee. my own experience is it's easier

when you have one hot spot. you set up your coordination, your supplies everything for that hot spot. when you have a nationalized pandemic, you have to get those resources to so many more different places. the hardest part is health care workers. you can't take them and send them from one place to another if everyone is overwhelmed. i want to stress it's not just the worry about millions of people dying. it's also the infections rip through our community and overwhelm the hospitals and reduce the care everyone else gets. >> let's press on that a little bit. that seems to be where the white

house's affinity lies in terms of a strategy. "the new york times" reported yesterday white house embraces a declaration from scientists that oppose lockdowns and rely on herd immunity. this is what you wrote on the topic, any pandemic management strategy relying upon immunity is flawed. uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant morbidity across the whole population. we can't afford distractions that undermine an effective response. here was tony fauci responding to the same reporting this morning on "gma." >> if you let things rip and let the infection go, no masks, crowd, doesn't make any difference, that quite frankly, george, is ridiculous. there will be so many people in the community that you can't

shelter and can't protect who will get sick and get serious consequences. this idea we have the power to protect the vulnerable is total nonsense. the science is clear. this doesn't, as you said, just endanger people's lives. it suggests that hospitals could become overwhelmed and people needing care for other ailments might not get the care they need. why is this on the table even? >> i don't know, nicolle. i think for most of us in public health and in health care it's alarming. thank you for mentioning that memorandum my colleagues and i offered in "the lancet." the gist of it is just that. none of us want lockdowns. they're harmful. they cause economic losses. they're a last resort when you have uncontrolled cases and hospitalizations. that's what we were seeing in the spring. the lockdowns were necessary

because we didn't know how widespread the pandemic was at that time. the way we stave off lockdowns is do all these public health measures, the mask wearing that seems controversial for unclear reasons, the crowd control, that keeps us from getting to the lockdown. the strategy presumes you can separate the vulnerable from the not vulnerable and it's unrealistic. 30% of the u.s. population could be vulnerable. how do you rip apart entire families or workplaces where you have vulnerable and not vulnerable? how do you do that? to ensure they don't get sick we reduce the transmission of cases. the thing to me that's suspect is timing. this white house has supported vaccines and there are four candidates with potential results coming out as early as

december. why shift to the herd immunity narrative when the vaccines may potentially work? even this barrington declaration that's funded by a libertarian think tank, one of the lead authors works with scott atlas. it's alarming. you'll see from the memo the majority of the world's health authorities don't support herd immunity through natural infection. it's not a strategy. it's an abdication of responsibility. >> doctor, thank you so much for crystallizing that. it doesn't make sense, but when you put it that way as an abdication of responsibility that's on brand for this white house. up next a member of the house intelligence committee joins us. we'll talk about the case that never was. even trump's sidekick attorney general bill barr couldn't prove any wrong doing in the unmasking

probe, widely hailed on fox news. now trump is lashing out over it. that's next.

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writing after 36 years i'm fleeing. what is the u.s. department of justice where i proudly served? unfortunately over the last year barr's resentment towards rule of law prosecutors became difficult to ignore as did his obedience to donald trump's will in his selective meddling in the criminal justice system in the paul manafort and michael flynn cases. according to the president, all that obedience isn't enough after the revelation yesterday that barr's unmasking investigation would close without any charges being brought or recommended against trump's rivals. here's how trump responded.

>> how do you feel about the unmasking situation and no one is going to be indicted? >> personally i think it's ridiculous. it's ridiculous. it's a disgrace. i think it's really a horrible thing that they get -- they're allowed to get away with it. >> bill barr will he be around in a second term? >> i have no comment. can't comment. it's too early. i'm not happy with all the evidence they had i can tell you that -- i'm not happy. >> he's going to way to see if he can steal the election. congressman jim himes is here. these were investigations pursued by donald trump that he wanted and that they're turning up nothing is to me not the headline.

the headline is that they happened at all. are you concerned about the way he's directed prosecutors at the department of justice? >> well, of course, nicolle. this is nothing new. you know, look, bill barr is not a dumb man. he watched what happened to jeff sessions. jeff sessions was not a man i'm in the habit of praising. he tried to act like a traditional attorney general, follow the law, observe the independence that's unique to the department of justice and keeps it from being the secret police to the president of the united states that so many other countries have. bill barr knew the jeff sessions model wouldn't work. he determined to be different. he can be different in ways that are deeply troubling to us, like lying about the mueller report, any of the statements he's made supporting the president. what he can't do is force judges

or investigators to see facts that don't exist. so guess what? when the president emerges from his fantasy land of deep state coups and getting inspector generals investigating the absurdity of the president's beliefs and they turn out not to be true, it's an uncomfortable place for bill barr to be. >> you share a home state with john durham. he was tasked to do the probe into the russia investigation. no nora dennehy was a long time departmeuty to him. do you think her departure jolted this investigation on to a more just track and -- i think

most people believe that was the original sin that got trump to turn against bar and durham wasn't going to turn out an october surprise? >> i don't know durham. by all accounts he's a serious h is to find the truth for an attorney general who doesn't care much about the truth and is uninterested in the truth. i'm not surprised that we are where we are and i'm not sure what the resignation of the deputy had to do about that. but nicolle, the other piece that is important here is the pattern, right. whether it is the inspector general looking at the mueller report and concluding there was no political motivation for that report, going back in my fairly limited time in congress, i rached the republicans do ten, not one, not two, not three, but ten different investigations of the tragedy in benghazi. they were politically motivated and from kevin mccarthy's

statement and they turned up certainly no indictments. and here is the fact that the american people need to think about as they think about all of this noise and the president's latest fantasies. how many indictments during the obama administration eight years of people in the obama administration? zero. zero indictments. out of benghazi or anything else. any of the fantasies. how many indictments in one term of the trump administration? 215, including seven convictions of the president's most senior people. flynn, bannon, and the list goes on. just for historical reference, how many indictments in the nixon administration, not an administration we hold up, 73. donald trump in one term has done three times as many indictments, has it three times as many people within his administration indicted as richard nixon. >> i mean, i had this theory and

i wonder what you think about it, the blizzard of corruption and the blizzard of criminality and scandal around trump sort of blurs it all out. but one thing that has come into focus in recent weeks is "the new york times" reporting on trump's taxes. and there have been four reports out. the first one i think is the one that, along with giving us that sort of humdinger that you pays $750 in taxes, we understand that he's deeply leveraged, a man in mountains of debt. from your perch on the intelligence committee, do you share concerns from counterintelligence officials at the fbi that he represents a national security threat. >> of course i do. and this is why the tradition of putting your tax returns out there should probably be something more than a tradition. it should now probably be law. because, yes, the president is deeply, deeply in debt. and the american people deserve

to understand precisely who has lent the president money. now i understand that, you know, it may be this fund or that fund. but who is behind that fund. and you could bet that the president knows that and the american people deserves that. and there is nothing wrong with owing money to somebody but the american people need to know who that is because if some decision that could impact that country or that bank or that person comes up, we're all alert to the possibility that there is a conflict of interest there. and by the way, of course this is not a president for whom you get the benefit of the doubt. you don't take this president's word on anything because he's so persistently lying about things, particularly where his own self interest is involved. >> which takes us to his own health status. i mean we all covered in realtime on live tv the sort of slow-loving cover-up of his own health where in a saturday press conference, doctors said one

thing and the white house chief of staff was feet away briefing reporters on camera but on background with a different take. you have senator harris taking herself off the campaign trail because two members of her campaign who she was not in close proximity to have tested positive and you have the president now barreling with an unmasked staff alongside him to the campaign trail. what do you think the voters have made of these two very different approaches to a deadly pandemic? >> well, the question at large is pretty clear. the president is in a lot of trouble in every poll that matters, in every swing state. the president is in a lot of trouble. you could lie about bringing back the coal mines, you could lie about eliminating the deficit in the first term, which he did not accomplish. but when you go to the american people and say coronavirus is a hoax and we will all be in the churches on easter, remember that one, and then --

>> yes. >> and hundreds of thousands of americans die, you know, you can't lie to americans about something that is that visible, that determinable and that tragic. and that is what this president has continued to do. and that is the real tragedy the way he treated his own case. story he wants to wear a superman shirt and now wants to kiss people because he's immune. none of that is true. he continues having a rough time himself to put americans at risk. people will die. people have died. thousands of people have died because the president has not been willing to be honest about any of this. and, look, that is on him. and i think the reason that you're going to see a pretty big wave on november 3rd has a lot to do with the personal tragedy involved in that particular set of lies. >> i think i speak for most people when i say, i am thankful that he did not -- the stunt he was going to pull off, "new york

times" wrote this almost exactly, he was going to leave walter reed and try to appear more frail than he was and rip open his dress shirt and expose his chest in the superman shirt. so i think i speak for everyone alive in saying that we're all glad he did not do that. jim himes, we're glad that you appeared. thank you so much for spending time with us today. the next hour of "deadline: white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. where.

with two new haunted houses, the screams are just getting started. wear your favorite costumes and the fun never ends. come get your halloween on, happening now at universal orlando resort. those voters you just described, they've got a member of their family who may have been killed by covid or disabled

by covid or laid off as a consequence of covid. and whatever you think about whether the federal government can help on big, major issues like systemic racism, one thing that we know is just basic competence could end up saving lives. but when we have the threat of pandemic, we had competent people in place who would deal with it. and that's an example of the kind of thing that government can do and we've seen it do. >> hi, again, everyone. it is 5:00 in the east. donald trump's governing philosophy is the opposite of what former president obama describes right there. it is the staggering incompetence high on breathtaking indifference to

human life and what it produces is a rising death toll, a surging coronavirus case load now over 8 million in this country and a federal government offering inside information to the investor class while knowingly deceiving the american public. that is according to new reporting in "the new york times." the times out today with a report saying that the trump white house conducted private briefings that resulted in gains for wealthy investors wild donald trump was tweeting this, quote, the coronavirus is very much under control in the usa. stock market starting to look very good to me. his white house was delivering a very different private message to investors. the times writes, quote, hours earlier seniors members of the president's economic team privately addressing board members of the conservative hoover institution were less confident. senior economic adviser thomas philipson told the group he could not yet estimate the effects of the virus on the american economy. to some in the group, the

implication was that an outbreak could prove worse than mr. philipson and other trump administration advisers were signaling in public at the time. the fact that trump was lying to the public was revealed in this taped interview with bob woodward. >> to be honest with you. >> sure. i want you to be. >> i wanted to always play it down. i still like playing it down. >> yes. >> because i don't want to create a panic. >> but the fact that a different and more frank message was being delivered to investors, shows that while the american people were left to fend for themselves, lied to by the president and his team, investors were given information to help enrich themselves. the times writes, quote, hours after he had boasted on cnbc about the virus was contained in the u.s., and quote, it is pretty close to air tight, larry kudlow delivered a more ambiguous private message.

'certificat 'he asserted that the virus was contained in the u.s. to date. but now we don't know. that is according to the documents obtained by the "new york times." truth about covid shared with ooir investors is where we start this hour. washington post columnist, donna edwards is back. also with us, peter baker, new york time white house correspondent. and dr. william schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at vanderbilt university medical center and an adviser to the cdc. peter baker, this is a stunny story could read through. you have to put your jaw back off the table when you get through it. but we have trump admitting to woodward that he knowingly lied to the public. the other side of that seems to be that they knowingly told the truth to investors. take me through what you're colleagues are reporting here. >> yeah, i think you've summed it up pretty well. they basically had a session

with, you know, the hudson institute donors and patrons and so forth saying that the situation was more bleak than they were saying publicly. that something serious was afoot. around there was a memo that was spread around wall street and it basically said, you know, provided the dire message from the white house and guided clearly some investors to begin shorting stocks and otherwise changing their investment strategy with this inside information that the public was not getting. so i think that this goes to the heart of this administration's handling of the number one issue of the year, which is what did to do in terms of the coronavirus, how did it handle it with the public and when did it tell the public and even though this day, is it treating it with the seriousness that public health experts would tell you that they should.

>> donna edwards, it would appear that along with the hudson institution, hoover institute, others were in on the joke. politico reported in april that republican and democratic lawmakers have bought and sold stocks and some of them lucrative moves to invest in nufts buoyed by the virus and hotels and restaurants have tanked according to the legal center from february 2nd to april 8th of this year, the nonpartisan watchdog group found 12 senators made 127 purchases or sales and 37 house representatives made 1,358 transactions. we should also put up that richard burr's stock trade. if he's one of those 12 senators, i assume he was. have come under criminal scrutiny. investigators are looking into whether he used nonpublic

information about the coronavirus when he sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stocks in february of this year. he temporary stepped down as the chair of the intelligence committee who would have have access to just that. nonpublic information about the coronavirus. what is a public that is dealing with food insecurity, dealing with school insecurity and fear supposed to make of a white house briefing and members of the house and senate trading stocks off private information. >> well i think the public makes exactly -- comes exactly to the conclusion that people believe. that if you are in the investor class, if you are in the know, if you got friends in high places, then you get a better deal than the average american who is struggling to put food on the table and teaching their children at home. this report is -- it may not

rise to the level of criminal behavior within the jurisdiction of the securities and exchange commission, it may not be insider training but it sure stinks to high heaven that you have a president of the united states, who around that same time or before then was saying i'm going to play it down, but i know it's bad and i knows it airborne. we are just not going to tell anybody about it and administration was not really doing anything about it. and the senior economic advisers saying one thing publicly, that, you know, this was going to be over and it is no big deal. but privately sharing with their investor class friends and that memo that then and email that then spread like the sur ept tishs environment to cut deals bedding against our economy, betting against the american people and the rest of us are

left to fend for ourselves. this is really just disgusting at every single level. >> and dr. schaffner, i guess the point here is that the scientists and the doctors tried to actually give the american people the same information that donald trump's economic advisers gave the investor class. dr. nancy participated in a teleconference and i remember watching or listening to the audio of that teleconference on my colleague rachel maddow's show and she said this on february 25th, the same day that the investors were briefed, as more and more countries experience community spread, successful contain amount theed borders becomes harder and harder. we'll see community spread in this country, it is not so much a question of if this will happen any more but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen. and how many people in this country will have severe illness. her job was on the line after she said that. she was rebuked by the white

house. that was the truth, though, right? >> oh, the doctor was right on the truth. and she was very pressient because everybody she talked about came to be, exactly right. one of the great difficulties and you have been talking about this, is that the federal government needs to take the lead in these kinds of pandemic preparedness and response activities. it is a countrywide phenomenon as it is today. now, basic to that, of course, is trust. people have to trust the government. and in the past, we would put the public health people out in front. they would tell the public and as we learned more, they told the public more and if they had to change guidelines, they would. and that was generally believed. but since everything has moved to washington, it has taken a political taint and the entire

response to covid has been politicized. >> dr. schaffner, the white house reported yesterday that the trump administration, the trump white house has embraced a doctrine that advocates against shutdowns and for herd immunity. what would that mean to this country and what is your view on that? >> well i'm aghast. i mean, that sounds like darwiny an survival of the fittest. we'll let the virus run and it will ke will kill all of the weak among us and the strong will survive. that is nonsense. it is something that we gave up, i don't know, in the 19th century. so here we have opportunities to do things that could intervene, that could actually spare lives. if this virus were to run rampant, by the time it created so-called community protection or herd immunity, they would be

somewhere between 2 and 6 million additional deaths. and never mind all of the people hospitalized and the extraordinary distress. it would create all kinds of economic distress in our society. that's a totally bizarre recommendation. >> peter baker, it is something that the white house signed on to. and just to watch this white house maskless, even amid a period of outbreak that took victim 34 people in the president's orbit, including four members of the media and your colleague on the white house beat. it is not something that the white house denied after your story was written, that i saw. certainly, my question for you is why doesn't the president see his political redemption as being something that winds its way through helping the country protect itself from the

pandemic? the economic catastrophe is as dire as the health crisis. 900,000 americans filed for first time unemployment claims last week. the numbers are steadily -- they're as flat as the curve was over the summer. this is not an economy that is any more healthy than the country with this pandemic raging. >> it is a good question. first of all, you rightly corrected me. i said the wrong institute, it is the hoover institution that received the briefing. thank you for doing that right. and you're right, it is hard -- >> it is usually the other way around. you correct me. >> well, you know, that is not the case. you've corrected me for years. but it is a mystery, right. why the president didn't see the connection between conquering the virus and improving the economy. these things are not separate. they're not in opposition to each other. but they're tied together. if you want the economy to get back, you have to get people to

faith that the virus is under control and they could return to school and work and daily life and some sort of safe way and the president's own experience and the white house experience has shown us that the president's way is in fact not safe because as you point out three dozen people came out of this event or a sequence of events at the same time with an illness known to kill people and i think that's -- you continue to see the president having those rallies this week. one each night with thousands of people crammed together, not socially distant and not wearing masks and without any kind of sense that there are precautions being taken. so the president decided to double down on the idea that the virus, you know, is not the big threat that everybody else seemed to perceive it to be and that they should encourage people to pull there it and if they do they'll be strong like he is. you mentioned the superman shirt that he wanted to wear. he's got this idea that

conquering the disease is simply bullying through it. he has access to medication that most of us don't have access to and there is a lot of people for whom the medication won't work. 215,000 people. that is a size of a large city simply being wiped off the map and you never hear him talk about that. so he's got his decision he's made and will play it out in the next 20 days and i don't expect to see him shift gears or change tone on it. >> donna edwards, the tragedy though is that there are human examples close to this president, herman cain at the tulsa rally and masks were not seem and social distancing did not exist and lost his life. and chris christie preparing donald trump for the debates and at that ceremony naming amy coney barrett to the supreme court was hospitalized for a week. what is it that joe biden is

doing on this front, which is really simple. joe biden is basically sort of a walking psa for what tony fauci recommends we all do. he's wearing mask, social distancing, and listening to the scientists. what do you think the contrast, just not on the lack of humanity and the empathy, but this is how we get our businesses back. this is how we put our kids back in school. the kids will learn to wear masks and sit six feet apart. it feels like biden is just going around trump and making the economic message through the covid messaging. >> well, it is been so fascinating to watch because i think in the beginning of the -- of joe biden's campaign, it seemed like a very tenuous argument to make about the economy and the direct connection with covid. but joe biden is actually stuck on that. and he's drawn very direct links between what we do to get control of the virus and to wipe

it out as a way to get back to a strong economy. and i think that he's been very successful. and i think part of the reason that joe biden is able to run ads these days and go out on the campaign trail and talk about his plans for the future and to do it in a way that is safe and recommended by the cdc is because that is his own sort of positive ad about how it is that we get back to a more normal place. and he knows that every day that donald trump shows up at a rally without masks and people get -- contract coronavirus, that that rights its own negative ad against donald trump. so i think that joe biden is actually been quite successful at marrying the connection between getting a handle of the virus and moving this economy forward. and people really feel that.

they know in their own lives, they can't go back to work or school. all of those things are impacted by this virus. and joe biden is cap titalizingn what barack obama said, which is all you have to do is be competent and get control of the virus. >> and the incompetence is laid bare in the numbers, in every state in this country. dr. schaffner, i wonder what your take is of where we are and when our next opportunity is to turn things around, tony fauci sounds increasingly concerned warning people not to plan to gather around the holidays. warning this campaign, the president's campaign to take him out of the ads that he's feeling is not that everything is going well. >> well, nicolle, things are not going well. if we look around the country, cases are increasing in many,

many states. and we would anticipate that as the week goes on and more time together, whether in the holidays or preparing for them or after them, we're going to spread this virus even further and then we're going to be hit simultaneously with influenza and. and by the way, let's all get vaccinated against influenza. that is something we could do something about right now. and actually, covid is something we could do something about right now. let's all wear our masks. do social distancing, avoiding large groups. those things work. we can do that together and i would promise you within three weeks, it will take that long, but within three weeks the curve of cases would flatten and then start to go down if we were all, all of us, meticulous about masking and social distancing, nicolle. >> you first made that point on

this show many, many months ago. and i remember because at the time you had your mask with you. and you put it on and i thought that was important. now we're all used to them. my 8-year-old grabbed a mask for me when someone came to the door today. there it is. with a delivery. what responsibility does donald trump bear for the fact that you still have to say that? >> we haven't had clear national leadership on this point. and other points related to the control of the covid virus. had we had that, i think this virus by now been much less damaging to all of us. both personally and socioeconomically and economically and in every other way. we would feel more confident that we as a people could do something about this virus if we work together on one team, focused on this problem, helping each other.

it would have been much more preferable, nicolle. >> dr. william schaffner, peter baker, donna edwards, three of our favorite people to get to talk to. thank you for starting us off this hour. when we come back, new york governor andrew cuomo said we're only at halftime in the fight against the coronavirus. he joins us to talk about the lessons he's learned since the pandemic ravaged his state and his indictment of the handling it of. that is next. and later in the hour, joe biden calls in his closer, former president barack obama, who is ready to hit the campaign trail. we'll play you more about what he's saying about the one time number two and the president he's trying to unseat. "deadline: white house" continues after a short break. don't go anywhere. don't go anywhere. knowing who we are is hard. it's hard. eliminate who you are not first, and you're going to find yourself where you need to be. ♪ the race is never over.

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these are small situations. this is a sweet 16 party on long island. this is a bar in broome county that violated the rules. they are episodic but one episode can create dozens of cases, so it's a lack of compliance and a lack of enforcement. >> that was new york governor andrew cuomo this morning after issuing a final warning to current hot spots and threatening to withhold state funding from localities and schools that violate his restrictions. cuomo has said everything is on the table. as hospitalizations in new york state and new york city hit their higher peaks since late

june. 70% of them driven by clusters of cases in brooklyn, queens and the hudson valley. in a new book, governor cuomo documents days of difficult decisions from march 1st and the moment the first case was confirmed in new york through june 19th when he had been reopening the state for about a month. cuomo said it is not a book of celebration but rather a review at halftime. he writes this. covid required government performance. yet the short comings were offus. testing, tracing and health care capacity needed to be mobilized and operationalized and quickly. and too many governments simply failed. in theory the formula is simple, quality leadership, government competence and national unity. new york conquered first wave but now i fear a new wave possibly coming. it is off in the distance but it is building. what is worse is that it is a man made wave. mother nature could not be

blamed for this one. joining us now is andrew kooumo and the book is called "american crisis, leadership questions from the covid-19 pandemic." i want to start there with this building new wave. how with r we doing and what is the scenario for the fall and winter? >> good to be with you, nicolle. we're not doing well. we, the united states of america. the fall everyone said was going to be problematic. but the denial by the federal government continued, right. the first mistake we made in this country was we had a federal government that denied the virus. some may say lied about the virus. but you get to the same point. they denied it. they were not operationally ready and not competent. then the experts said in the fall the virus is going to come back. and here it is. it's coming back. again the white house is not prepared for it. they're not addressing it. again they are denying it.

and will continue to see these numbers go up unless states frankly on their own adopt strategies just for this resurgence. and once we get past the fall, then we have the question of the quote/unquote vaccine, nicolle, that the president said weeks away, weeks away and then you have to ask yourself, how do we administer this vaccine. this is a country that couldn't find masks and gowns and q tips. how do you now administer 300 million vaccinations. so there is a lot ahead and we have to learn the lessons from the past seven months and we clearly haven't. >> i want to press you on vaccines because you, i believe, all governors, the national governors assist association sent a letter to the white house today saying in part this, additional guidance and clarification is needed on the roles an expectations of states

in a successful covid-19 vaccine distribution and implementation plan. to that end, as chair and vice claire of the national governors association we request a meeting with you and your team to discuss what is required to ensure a strong partnership including but not limited to the delliniation of the federal and state responsibility and the funding needs with those responsibilities and the plan supply chain management process. donald trump's message to new york with the stimulus and on his twitter feed has been basically go to hell. what is your expectation from donald trump's white house in terms of assisting you with the distribution of a vaccine for your state? >> yeah, nicolle, you're exactly right about new york. i think my theory, my psychological theory is that new yorkers rejected trump and new york is his home state. and frankly those who know the

president best like him least. that is a problem he has to deal with when he looks in the mirror. but as chairman of the national governors association, these are democratic governors and these are republican governors. and this is learning the lesson, right. the white house talks about we're going to have a vaccine. it is in a number of weeks. and then what, mr. president? are you going to do what you did seven months ago? and the federal government throws up its hands and says this is up to the 50 states, you states now have to figure out how to vaccinate your own population. am i going to find out on some tweet that i have to vaccinate 20 million people? how do i do it? when do i do it? are you going to provide funding for me to do it? you're already saying no to state funding and local funding which means we're going to layoff the very personnel that

would be administering this vaccine. to do this logistical operation, nicolle, you could plan for weeks, government has never done anything this big in decades. and there is absolutely no conversation about it from the white house whatsoever. and, again, this was the mistake we made in the beginning. how the federal government, which knew this virus was coming, took the posture that the federal government has no responsible. it is up to the 50 states. the governors are in charge. when a problem is a problem for 50 states, by definition that is a national problem and that is why a federal government and a president who sits on top of the federal government. >> earlier in our show it was described as an abdication of leadership to veer toward what

the white house seems to have embraced this week which is herd immunity. with the president who is flirting with herd immunity, who is still a recovering covid patient himself, walking around without a mask and without socially distanced crowd, i i'm getting at do you really think you're going to find a partner in the trump administration? >> no. i don't think -- i don't think -- i don't think it is just the leadership question. i think it is a leadership question with the president. i think it is a competence question with his administration. i don't think they know how to govern. i don't think they knew that they were supposed to govern. i thi i think they thought this was a public relations charade. the president is a marketer, that is what he does. i've known him very well from new york. he was not a business man. he was a marketer, he was a

licensure. he created a image and licensed his likeness. you open a hotel and i'll license my name. and i think that is his attitude as president. he never had any policy background. he never had any concern for public policy issues. he is he rounded himself with a group of public relations people. so i don't think they knew how to govern. but they delegated, abdicated to the 50 states and now coming in the fall where we knew the virus was going to come back, there has been absolutely no leadership. and everything the federal government does is a negative. you know, the president's fundamental problem are facts. his problem is the truth. the virus is coming back. it's not going away. it is not getting better.

the numbers are going up. there is no vaccine. even once there is a vaccine, you have to figure out how to administer the vaccine. herd immunity means many people die. that is what herd immunity means. >> right. >> new york, which had one of the highest infection rates u you'd have from 20% to 50% or 60%. you have to have thousands more people infected and die. how is that a plan? >> i don't think it is a plan the public is ready for. i wan to ask you about the book. first of all, there is criticism of you for writing the book. and i'd like you to address that. but you admit some mistakes here. i don't mean any disrespect, it is hard for all politicians to do. but let me read where you do that. with the advantage of hindsight we should have made different decisions such as asking people to wear masks sooner. a factor driving the fair for me

was that the facts were already changing and the worst was that the belief that asymptomatic people couldn't spread the virus. we would have acted much differently if we would have known earlier. what else will we find out six months down the road. this underscores the fact that we still don't know that much about the disease or long-term health effects, if our kids who are, some of them at school, where should they be in school or at home, but you've been criticized for writing a book at what you describe as the halfway point and how do you describe to that and what do you sort of attribute the mistakes that you made and that you write about to here? is it the science or jum things that you would go back and do differently? >> i wrote the book, nicolle, for precisely for this purpose. to have this conversation. to say, let's talk about what happened and let's learn the lessons and let's go forward because we have the fall. and then we have to do vaccines.

and we're making the same mistake over and over and over. we have learned nothing. absolutely nothing. you have a president of the united states who still won't wear a mask. every projection says you could save 60,000 lives, 80,000 lives. he's still fighting with the scientists. he's still having political influence over the cdc and over the nih. and he's controlling health news through his political lens. look at the mistakes. and the mistakes that we made in new york. the federal government was in charge of testing early on. and they were slow and they were incompetent. the state in retrospect, i would have taken over the testing very early. we were the first state to mandate masks but i wish i had done that earlier. we were told that asymptomatic

spread wasn't possible. and that created many issues. because we were told you have to be sneezing, coughing, et cetera, to transmit the disease. that's just wrong. and that was just a bad fact. and we operated on that. we were told there was a china virus. it was not a china virus. it was a european virus. it came from italy, france, spain. >> right. >> and the virus came to new york for months before we had any idea. the incompetence is breathtaking. at least let's learn from it. you know, fool me once. >> let me -- you speak of incompetence and you write of your relationship with bill de blasio which you call a difference in philosophy. it seems to be a question of his competence. and as a mother with a child in new york schools, i hang on every word from both of you about schools. you were not always on the same

page. it is affected all new yorkers. i wonder if you could talk about what you -- you write my relationship with the mayor is even more come ated than my relationship with trump. and talk about it and do you worry it leaves new yorkers confused? >> it can't leave new yorkers confused for one simple reason. the state is in charge. right. it is all under state law. it is all under state policy. the state makes the decision for every city and county in the state. we passed that law early on. first i think the federal government should have been setting national policy but when they abdicated, they abdicated to t to t to the state. so we have a statewide policy. the state makes the rules within the state we have a lot of politicians with a lot of voices and a lot of opinions. they could express it but it is just an opinion. there is only state law. and, yes, i find it frustrating

dealing with president trump, i find it frustrating dealing with politicians in my state, including mayor de blasio. but at the end of the day, does it confuse people? no. it is just a pain in the neck for me. it's state law, the state makes the decisions about schools, parks, et cetera. local politicians can express their opinion. they could say they agree. they disagree. this is a controversial time. everybody has an opinion. god bless them, let them share it. but it shouldn't confuse people. because the state is making the policy determinations. >> governor cuomo, the book has done just what you suggested. it starts a really important conversation at a very scary time for our country with cases sur surging in most parts of the country. thank you for having part of that conversation here with us. we're always grateful to get to talk to you. >> my pleasure. thank you, nicolle. thanks. when we come back.

there are few people who could make the case for joe biden like former president obama can. and with less than three weeks to go before election day, that is jut what they're doing. "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. n. humira patients,... ...this one's for you. you inspired us to make your humira experience even better... with humira citrate-free. it has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, there's less liquid, and a thinner needle... with less pain immediately following injection.

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it's great to look at policy and do they have what were a ten point plan on this or that or the other. but a lot of it what is their basic character.

all right. are they people who instinctively care about the underdog? are they people who are able to see the world through somebody else's eyes and stand in their shoes. are they people who are instinctively jen rou instinctively generous in spirit, right. and that is who joe is. >> few people, scratch that, no people are able to make the case for joe biden quite like former president obama can. and you're about to see him do a whole lot more often. president obama set to join the campaign trail in the coming days an to be a major part of joe biden's closing message. the former vice president is up 11 points nationally. that as we mentioned, his campaign team is insisting that there is still a long way to go and that this race is far closer than many people just looking at

polls believe it to be. joining us now, natalie did, and mark liebovich. you two make me miss my old table days. first on the message last night from vice president biden's campaign manager. really cautioning from overconfidence. it seems to be driven by two things. one some concerns about turnout. you have the president wailing away every day about the legitimacy of the vote. it sounds like the biden camp wh wants to make sure people go out and vote and every vote counts. do you think they're seeing something that has them concerned in the final weeks? >> i think it is a full recognition that at this stage in the campaign it is all about turnout, right. i think, yes, polls matter. but it is about who shows up and who could show up safely in this environment where we have an ongoing pandemic, we also have

huge spike in voter suppression and voter intimidation tactics that are really impacting, let's be real, black and brown communities in states across the country. so the statement is a reflection of the reality that we know voters are up against and how to cast their ballots, understanding whether it is evolving state rules that are still being litigated, for example it texas we have counties with only one ballot box or recognizing this is the first time people are voting by mail and that will yield some issues potentially with ballots. so i think it is very realistic and sobering to say that. but the general recognition that at this stage the race is going to tighten. it is going to tighten to the level that those thousands, the ten or 20,000 votes are going to play a factor. similar to 2016. and there is no reason to take anything for granted. and it is very smart to put that message out there. because we need to encourage

people to turn out to vote and make sure that folks could do that safely and have every vote counted this election cycle. >> mark, there seems to be a recognition that joe biden doesn't just need to win, there is a growing sense and i think the media may further this is and that is a disservice because this is not the way presidents are chosen, but there is a growing narrative that biden needs to win in a landslide. no he doesn't. you win the electoral college. that is how you win the presidency. but because of the all of the bullying and because of all of the fear-mongering and the threats and because of the weaponization of the justice department which your paper has reported on, bill barr now making public voter fraud cases, briefing the president on them when they have to do with six, seven, eight ballots. this is a standard that seems unrealistic and again another example of the asymmetry that donald trump always creates. >> jen o'malley has done a

smooth job on this campaign. but i would say that any smart campaign manager at this point would put out a tweet like that regardless of what numbers they're running or not. i would be not at all surprised if she, you know, is not going by any internal -- it is her job to be nervous at this point. any campaign manager not nervous three weeks out from the election is not doing his or her job. so that is what -- i think it is upon important message. i think she has a built in buffer in getting people motivated and keeping people motivated in the 2016 was such a shock to the system. that is just underlying fear of god that everyone has in them. and trump is very good about going out there every day and reminding people why this is such an important election. but i just think that any sense of complacency at all, which the media could sometimes foster, is a dangerous thing for democrats

and they need to cover all of their bases and this is an important one. >> i want to follow up with you, mark, on this portrait of the two campaigns. i mean, and again elections are decided by the voters, not by anyone who sits in any chair like mine. but the choice could not be more stark. you've got infections on the harris sort of travel team it would appear. she's taken herself off the trail. you have footage of hope hicks an mark meadows who were grand poobah one and two in the petri dish waltz off a helicopter which is unventilated on to a plane which is also unventilated for people who work for the taxpayers without their masks on. at this point it feels like that is the point. >> it is the point. i mean the coronavirus is the single number one issue on this. we've been saying this for months now. and, donald trump is getting the coveted photo ops with air force one in the background and thousands of people cheering for him. but what is less dramatic and

arguably more harmful is ten days later there are reports of a spike whether in wisconsin, after he went there ten days ago, or in oklahoma after he did the tulsa event. do you see the follow-up things where these outbreaks or certainly indications that maybe there are outbreaks, not to mention follow-ups with people like chris christie and hope hicks when we're reminded once again that the white house for a couple of weeks a real hot zone. all of which is a really devastating message for him. which, i think the biden campaign has been very ostentatious and very cautious in setting absolutely 100 degrees different of a message. >> juanita, mark's colleague maggie habberman is reporting that an an interview chris christie said it was a mistake not to wear a mask at a white house. and we wish everyone a full

recov recovery from covid and everybody who got it from them or being around them. but donald trump wasn't able to say what chris christie said. chris christie suffered, he was hospitalized for a week and said it was a mistake not to wear a mask. someone in his at this point. >> yeah, we shouldn't expect anything different. i can't say i'm prsurprised. i'm disappoint in trump and his leadership and administration. the fact this is a pandemic that hurts black and brown communities. him not being able to say that is not a surprise to me. it tracks everything he's to be as far as dismissing the impact of the pandemic, ignoring the reality of the pandemic, lying to the american people about the

pandemic and the position with the way trump and his team handled this, the precautions, the intention, the chance transparency presented by senator harris and biden is stark. the american public can't ignore that, especially when this is something impacting their day to day lives and the lives of everyone they love. yes, this is the defining issue of this election cycle but it's highly damming and it's something that trump even if he wanted to pivot cannot. he has backed himself into a corner and that's why he can't bring himself to even say the words. >> i'm not going to say the word pivot anymore. 2016 cured me of ever uttering the word pivot. thank you both so much for spending time with us. wonderful to see you. >> when we come back as we do every single day, remembering lives well lived. y single day, lives well lived ed with middle class values. joe doesn't need to be the center of attention. or see himself on tv.

he has always focused on getting the job done. joe led us out of the 2008 recession, and increased health coverage for millions. as president, joe will focus on getting us out of our crises. he'll listen to experts, work across the aisle. and put the american people first. ff pac is responsible for the content of this ad.

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she had two children, five grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and wait, we are not done yet two great, great grandchildren but still, it seemed no one, nobody could keep up with mary sharp. an unstoppable force of energy. by all accounts, she was an absolute marvel. "the philadelphia inquirer" called her a loving discipline narcotic yin willing to do anything for the people she loved. as her family said, when she put

her foot down on issues of decency and accountability, you paid attention. not to say mary wasn't supremely kind. she loved people and traveling and crossword puzzles and if you ever got into a dance off with her, well, good luck to you. in fact, according to the "inquirer" she was dancing just two weeks before she passed away. mary sharp died of the coronavirus at the age of 85. her memory is a blessing for those she loved and if we're lucky, for the rest of us, too. we will be right back. the resto we will be right back. ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

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thank you so much for letting us into your homes

during these extraordinary times. it's not something we ever take for granted. we're grateful. "the beat" with my friend ari melber starts right now. hi. >> hi, nicole, thank you very much. welcome to "the beat" i'm ari melber. we're 19 days to the election with donald trump losing ground in key states. electoral evidence shows that donald trump is literally playing defense again today going to states that he won in 2016 trying to sure up past support there he appears to have lost rather than doing what candidates prefer to do, particularly incumbent presidents, challenge the challenger on other turf. tonight donald trump is going forward and missing the chance to reach many millions on a debate stage having ditched a shot at the second chance after bombing in the first debate according to voters. my view, which many voters said having watched it. both candidates are doing separate town halls tonight. donald trump basical