good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington, with only 18 days to go, president trump and former vice president biden are both on the trail today. last night it was a tale of two town halls. president trump, combative but barely mentioning joe biden as he fought back against persistent fact checking by savannah guthrie in miami. >> just this week you retweeted to your 87 million followers a conspiracy theory that joe biden orchestrated to have s.e.a.l. team 6, the navy s.e.a.l. team, killed to cover up the fake death of bin laden. why would you send a lie like that to your followers? >> that was a retweet. that was an opinion of somebody. and that was a retweet. i'll put it out there. people can decide. >> i don't get that. you're the president. you're not like someone's crazy uncle who retweets whatever. >> no, no. that was a retweet. and i do a lot of retweets.

>> joe biden striking a much calmer tone in philadelphia but still criticizing mr. trump's record on the pandemic, on race, race relations, climate change, the economy, while giving this assessment of what a trump victory would mean. >> if you lose, what will that say to you about where america is today? >> well, it could say i'm a lousy candidate and i didn't do a good job. but i think, uh, i hope that it doesn't say that we are as racially, ethnically, and religiously at odds with one another as it appears the president wants us to be. >> joining me now, robert gibbs, former press secretary to president obama. michael steele, former republican national committee chairman. and nbc's mike memoli in detroit ahead of joe biden's arrival there for his big trip to

michigan today. michael steele, first to you. the president's rather strange answer about that retweet only minutes after this interaction with savannah about qanon. >> let me ask you about qanon. it is this theory that democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that. can you just once and for all state that that is completely not true? >> so -- >> will you disavow qanon in its entirety? >> i know nothing about qanon. >> i just told you. >> you told me, but what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact, i hate to say that. i know nothing about it. i do know they are very much against, uh, pedophilia, they fight it very hard. >> they believe it is a satanic cult run by the deep state. >> i'll tell what you i do know about. i know about antifa and i know about the radical left. i just don't know about qanon. >> you do know.

>> i don't know. no, i don't know. >> michael steele, his own fbi and homeland intelligence agencies explaining what qanon is and that it is dangerous. we're talking about domestic terror here. they've been violent. how can he say that he doesn't know? and she just defined it for him. >> as the song goes, if you don't know, now you know. and the truth of it is, he does know. the president has been briefed on qanon. but the core point for trump is that they like him. they admire him. and they push out whatever he's saying and whatever he wants out in the ether. so this -- he doesn't get into the minutia of what they're doing. he's not into all the other stuff beyond what he knows about the pedophile part of -- their anti-pedophile position. for him, they're a group who likes him, that's why he

retweets them. to savannah's point, you're the president of the united states. these things matter when you say them, when you tweet them out. you can't just randomly tweet something out with no understanding of what it says to the country when you tweet it out. so when you tweet out qanon stupid, people think, oh, okay, that's a legitimate thing. so, you know, no matter how you cut at this, andrea, he's not going to get into the space where he can be perceived to have been wrong in doing so. the guy who retweets is full of retweets on something like this. >> and he was retweeting again today, some really crazy website. robert gibbs, the biggest issue obviously is the coronavirus, that's the biggest issue hanging over everything, over the economy. the president couldn't or wouldn't, i should say, even tell savannah if he had tested, been tested on debate day and when his last negative test was. let's watch. >> the debate commission's rules, it was the honor system, would be that you would come

with a negative test. you say you don't know if you got a test on the day of the debate? >> i have no problem. again, the doctors into it. i don't ask them. i test all the time. and -- >> did you take a test, though, on the day of the debate? >> you ask the doctor, they'll give you a perfect answer. they take a test and i leave and i go about my business. >> did you take a test on the today of the debate, i guess is the bottom line. >> i probably did. and i took a test the day before and the day before and i was always in great shape. >> do you take a test every single day? >> no. but i take a lot of tests. >> and you don't know if you took a test the day of the debate? >> possibly i did, possibly i didn't. >> robert, what do you make of that? >> andrea, sometimes a nonanswer is an answer. what i make of that is, he didn't take a test the day of the debate. and i think that seems somewhat clear. you know, when that's your answer, the structure of it means you didn't. and look, i think both that answer, but i think his answer

on coronavirus, still questioning the efficacy of mask wearing at this stage, and after he himself has dealt with the coronavirus, contrasted with what joe biden said at the beginning of his town hall exchanges on this, i think are the exact contrast that the vice presidential campaign wants. the question you asked of michael, joe biden said when it comes to the vaccine and treatments and how we go about our business in reacting to coronavirus, joe biden said the president's words matter. and, you know, that undecided voter, you know, really nodded their head and got that. people understand that. i think it was a real stark contrast, if you watched those two events, on the issue that really does matter most to voters right now. >> and another big issue, of course, has been all of the reporting on his tax returns,

which, you know, still have not been put out, but "the new york times" had all of that reporting. jen palmieri joining us, former communications director in the obama administration and of course hillary clinton's presidential campaign. the president confirmed, basically, to savannah's questions, the "new york times's" reporting that he owes $400 million, but he wouldn't say to whom. >> i'm very underleveraged. i have a very, very small percentage of debt compared -- >> are you confirming that yes, you do owe some $400 million? >> what i'm saying is it's a tiny percentage of my net worth. >> that sounds like yes. >> i don't owe russia money. i don't owe v-- i owe a very small -- it's called moralities. >> any foreign bank or entity? >> not that i know of, but probably, because it's so easy to solve, and if you would like to do -- i will let you know who -- who i owe whatever small amount of money. >> jen, he's never been questioned about this, that was really illustrative. >> there was a lot there.

there's a lot to unpack. he's not normally pushed the way savannah guthrie pushed him and particularly the style where she kept coming back at him in a conversational way, he wasn't used to dealing with that. i don't imagine he walked onto that stage thinking he was going to admit to being in debt to $400 million, and calling that a small amount, most americans would not agree it's a small amount. and i think we also have a sense of, you know, what is trump facing on the outside, when he does lead the white house. if he's facing $400 million in debt, if he's facing possible prosecution from the state attorney operating out of new york, you have a sense of all the reasons why he's hanging on so hard to the white house. but it was a pretty stunning admission. >> the whole hour was just

extraordinary. mike memoli, let's talk about a very different 90 minutes, which was joe biden in philadelphia. he's on his way to michigan, i guess, where you are today, and detroit. but one thing he did dodge was the question about whether he would pack the supreme court, being caught between two parts of the democratic caucus on this in the senate on this. this was george stephanopoulos trying to pin him down. >> if they vote on it before the election, you are open to expanding the court? >> i'm open to considering what happens from that point on. >> you said so many times during the campaign, all through the course of your career, it's important to level with the american people. >> it is, but george, if i say -- no matter what answer i gave you, if i say it, that's the headline tomorrow. it won't be about what's going on now, the improper way they're proceeding. >> don't voters have a right to know where you stand? >> they do have a right to know where i stand before they vote. >> he said he would explain it all before election day.

but people are voting right now, some 12 million or more people have already voted. >> yeah, andrea, i mean, one of the ironies of biden's stated position there that he doesn't want to comment on this issue because then it becomes the story, is that his continued dodging of this question has itself become a story. i mean, you talk about what a contrast we saw, though, in these two town halls last night, you really do wonder what we would have seen had these two men been sharing a debate stage in the town hall format and really you kind of wish you could have seen that. short of that, i was struck, watching this, last night, just at how biden performed in terms of he was very reflective at times. at times he even gave president trump some credit on foreign policy when he was asked about that by a voter. but he much more broadly criticized him for isolating america. and then when it came to that court packing question, elapsed into, as he admitted, his days as a constitutional law professor, talking about the

merits of some of the ideas that democrats have put forward, proposals to reform the supreme court, maybe expand it, maybe add some age limits, time limits to the tenure of supreme court justices. but ultimately not giving that answer, but andrea, as biden does prepare to come here to michigan, robert referred to comments that biden made in terms of the words of a president matter. we're also seeing the same comment from governor gretchen wilmer here in michigan as she was responding to comments trump directed to her on thursday calling her a dictator. it will be interesting to see one of the things i'll keep an eye on is whether governor whitmer joins joe biden on the campaign trail today. we know they've spoken since the revelation of the plot to kidnap her but we haven't seen them together. whitmer one of those women on george's vice presidential short list as well. >> indeed. and in fact the michigan government just put out a decision today, the secretary of state, i believe, saying that people cannot carry weapons into polling booths.

so that's obviously top of mind, continuing the threats of possible problems going forward. jen palmieri, you worked in the clinton white house. you saw joe biden trying to respond to a question from a trump voter last night about the crime bill and how it was certainly perceived today to be unfair to minorities on sentencing and other provisions. and his response was that at the time, the black caucus supported it. but he did acknowledge that there were some problems with that crime bill which he used to tout so much. >> yeah, and it's true that -- it's true that at the time, in 1994, when that crime bill was passed, it was something that was passed with the support of the congressional black caucus, it was something they worked on together. and, you know, we had the same issue come up in 2016, with hillary and the admission that what's happened, what happened 20 years on, is those sentencing

guidelines had had pretty disastrous impacts on a lot of people's lives. that's something biden reckoned with yesterday too. >> robert gibbs, you've prepared presidents for debates. and you've seen how president obama in his first debate didn't do well as an incumbent, then came back in later debates. if you were preparing donald trump right now for a debate next week where he's going to face off with joe biden, kristen welker, our colleague, is the moderator, can he come on strong and combative as he did in the first debate? and to a great extent last night as well. >> no. and i think if you step back from last night, i mean, he was not as torqued up as he was the week before. and i think many of us thought that when you put an undecided voter into that equation, he probably is going to dial back some. he was still pretty hot, but he dialed back some. look, i think the biggest challenge that donald trump has

is, he needs voters to fundamentally rethink and reevaluate in a positive way his actions and his presidency. and i think that is the hurdle that he has to get over. and so in many ways, i think he's got to get people, and the answers he gives about what he wants to do differently, before he draws that contrast with joe biden. i was surprised at this town hall that he didn't focus a bit on the economy, which is a bit more of a natural advantage for him. >> indeed. we'll have to leave it there for now. a lot more to come next week. robert gibbs, jen palmieri, michael steele, mike memoli, thanks to all of you. ahead, rudy awakening? new details about the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani being the target of a russian influence campaign. first, the president continues to spread false information about covid-19 as more than 8 million americans now have been infected with the virus. a fact check from our medical

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there are now more than 8 million coronavirus cases in the u.s. with thursday hitting the highest single day mark since july, suggesting the country is suffering from a third peak with 38 states now having increases, reporting double digit increases. but president trump continues to falsely claim scientists have found a cure for the virus. >> it's rounding the corner. and we have the vaccines coming. and we have the therapies coming. and i'll tell you what, one thing, when i got it, i had a choice. do nothing or use some of the things that we're looking at, like in this case regeneron and eli lilly makes something that's supposed to be incredible. and i think that maybe i wouldn't be doing this discussion with you right now. we have therapies now and cures, maybe you can use the word "cure," but we are therapies that are absolutely incredible.

>> joining me now is dr. kavita patel, former health policy director for the obama white house. thanks very much for being with us, dr. patel. i want to do some fact checking with you, first of all claiming there's a cure and also, how is it for people who don't know any better, who listen to the president, who think that's authoritative, to think there's cure for this disease? >> andrea, that's a great set of questions. there is no cure for coronavirus, covid-19. that's a fact. certainly the president i think has done his share of spreading misinformation. and to your point, more candidly, if you're listening, you would believe the commander in chief, why not? and this is a series of misinformations, including that there is no cure, that's a fact, if people think there's a cure, it might make them more prone to do other things like not wear masks or take precautions that we know can protect you.

that leads to a whole other level of misinformation that was spread last night about masks as well. but that is -- unfortunately we do not have a cure. we have promising treatments. but you have to be generally hospitalized with pretty severe illness to get those treatments. and even then it's not a cure or a treatment that you can guarantee will get you out of the hospital safely. >> and in talking about his own ability to combat the coronavirus, he keeps talking about how he is immune. now, because he took regeneron, which gives you synthetic antibodies. according to "the new york times," and this gets into your area, not mine, but according to "the new york times" today, the monoclonal antibodies he received were produced by the drug company in a matter of weeks. without replenishment this may leave mr. trump more susceptible

to the virus than most patients who recover naturally from covid-19, several experts are warning. is there something to that? >> yes, this gets into an area where we're still trying to understand how these artificial kind of antibodies, to your point, the ones the president received which are still experimental, andrea, so i want to stress that, these kind of artificially administered antibodies we believe can provide you some protection like it did in the president, most likely. again, we still don't have clear details on what's happened to him so we're relying on these statements he's made and the position he's made. but you're right, they don't last forever. even natural immunity, andrea, if you or i were infected, we believe our body has some sort of natural immunity response, it's not clear how long that would last. maybe months. but maybe longer. but again, it's not enough to give anybody protection or say that they're, quote, immune from the disease. and in fact, we're watching people closely to make sure that

they are not infected again. there are very limited cases of reinfection with covid-19, but they do exist, andrea. that's why we want everyone to still, even if they were infected, wear masks, keep a distance, wash their hands, and take precautions. >> and that other claim you alluded to a moment ago, his claiming that 85% of people who wear masks catch covid, let me show that you exchange, because savannah tried to correct him on this. >> i'm good with masks. i'm okay with masks. i tell people, wear masks. but just the other day they came out with a statement that 85% of the people that wear masks catch it. >> they didn't say that. i know that study. >> that's what i heard. and that's what i saw. >> he is completely misinterpreting a cdc report based on a misinterpretation or a deliberate, you know, false misinterpretation on fox news. >> yeah, let's be clear about

what that cdc report stated. and by the way, the cdc themselves have been trying to make sure they clarify the president's misinformation. it was a study that compared about 160 people that had coronavirus with people who did not. and they tried to compare the differences between these people who had it and who did not. and here was the takeaway. the takeaway is that the majority of the people who caught coronavirus were in bars, restaurants, and small settings. and they noted that approximately 85% of people who caught coronavirus also reported often using masks, but the key finding in that study is that they went to restaurants and bars where they admitted they took off their masks to eat or drink, andrea, just like you or i would. so the key finding the cdc wanted to stress is that even people who are trying to protect themselves by wearing masks find themselves in situations where they're in close contact with people, and that that is the overwhelming factor, not the

misinformation or the misstatement about the statistics around masks. masks are not a silver panacea but they do help, and that's the important point to make there. >> it's so helpful to have you with us today, thank you so much, dr. patel. thanks for having the time to straighten that out. meanwhile, u.s. intelligence agencies say rudy giuliani was being used as the tool of a russian disinformation campaign. what did the white house know? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. [ thunder rumbles ] [ engine rumbling ] [ beeping ] [ engine revs ]

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there are reports today that u.s. intelligence agencies learned last year that the president's private lawyer, rudy giuliani, was being targeted as part of a russian intelligence disinformation program aimed at joe biden. the information came as a result of surveillance of andriy derkach who has been identified bit treasury as a russian agent. the warning about giuliani was passed to the white house. giuliani told "the washington post" he was never informed that derkash was a foreign asset. ken dilanian and phil rucker,

thanks for joining us. ken, the u.s. wasn't spying on giuliani but he was picked up as part of, presumably, intercepts involving this russian asset. >> that's right, andrea. the cia and other intelligence agencies don't spy on americans but they do spy on russian agents overseas. when those people are speaking to americans, as happened in the case of the president's lawyer rudy giuliani, sometimes those americans get picked up on intercepts, become the subject of intelligence reports. and that's what happened here, my sources tell me. the cria and other intelligence agencies became concerned that rudy giuliani was being worked over, as one person put it, by russian intelligence, fed disinformation particularly by andre derkach, a ukrainian parliamentarian who was sanctioned by the u.s. last month. they said he's participating in a scheme right now to interfere in the 2020 election.

so giuliani met with derkach december 5. in late december the intelligence community sent a classified report to the white house. "the washington post" and "the new york times" are reporting national security adviser robert o'brien presented that report to president trump with something of a warning that his lawyer was doing this. we have not matched that reporting. but the picture here is that rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer, seems to have been in the crosshairs of russian intelligence who were trying to peddle disinformation and discredit joe biden. >> phil, your paper is reporting about the warning from robert o'brien cautioning president trump about this during a private conversation. what more can you tell us about that conversation with? >> that's right, andrea. my colleagues at "the washington post" report that robert o'brien, national security adviser, told the president that any information he receives from rudy giuliani is at risk of being contaminated by the russians because of what u.s. intelligence agencies had uncovered about giuliani.

and o'brien left that discussion not convinced that the president was taking it seriously. in fact the president said something along the lines of, well, you know, that's rudy being rudy. and of course rudy giuliani has continued to be close with the president, defended him as his personal attorney through the impeachment proceedings, and now is a close political adviser in the reelection campaign, is in that room with president trump, helping lead the president's debate preparation. >> which is, you know, all the more concerning, because we have all of these instances where the president is telling the attorney general to go and investigate his political opponents, including joe biden, president obama, hillary clinton, saying there's enough evidence to indict. and barr has so far at least resisted this much of it but he's certainly started several u.s. attorneys looking into -- durham, and now one that's just wrapped up in texas, looking into political opponents. it's all so murky.

i also want to ask you, phil, about caroline giuliani. this is always a sensitive subject, family matters, but she's published an extraordinary essay in "vanity fair" criticizing her father, saying they've had longstanding political differences, and writing, in fact, that -- i mean, i've certainly been concerned about his public behavior, this is what she said to rachel maddow last night, she said it's taken persistence and nerve to find my voice in politics and i'm using it now to ask you to stand with me in the fight to end donald trump's reign of terror. what do you make of this? >> you know, andrea, it's remarkable. i don't consider myself an expert on giuliani family relations, but it is telling that his daughter has come out in such strong language to condemn the president that her father works with and works for. we should point out, by the way, that another of rudy giuliani's children, his son andrew, actually works for the trump

white house and is very much a part of the trump coalition. so clearly a divide around the dinner table in the giuliani family. >> and she was on with rachel maddow last night, i think we can play that short, short clip of caroline giuliani talking about her father and their relationship. >> have you been concerned about his public behavior at all? >> i mean, i've certainly been concerned about his public behavior, not for those reasons per se but just because he's involved in this whole group of people doing these things. so i think it's less about him specifically and more about this mob mentality that has been created and that he's feeding, unfortunately. >> now, at the same time, ken and phil, i just want to share that mitt romney has now tweeted about the qanon conspiracy and

the president's refusal to disavow it last night, mitt romney now saying the president's unwillingness to denounce an absurd and dangerous conspiracy theory last night continues an alarming pattern. politicians and parties refuse to repudiate groups like antifa, white supremacists and conspiracy peddlers, including anti-vaxxers, militias, and anarchists. rather than expel the rabid extremes, they have coddled or adopted them, eagerly trading their principles for the hope of electoral victories. the parties may be opening the door to a political movement that could eventually eclipse them both. he seems to be spreading the blame a little bit on both sides when he mentions antifa but he's certainly taking on the president in his comments last night. ken? >> i think that's absolutely right, andrea. and this is all of a piece, right? the president is willing to accept propaganda from any

quarter as long as it supports his world view. and that's why, steering back to this russian agent, andriy derkach, he was releasing doctored audiotapes of conversations that joe biden allegedly had in ukraine. donald trump is retweeting them, even though it had been labeled as russian propaganda. in the case of qanon he's unwilling to tdenounce this grop because, as he said, "they like me." this is a theme here and it's becoming a problem when it comes to russian interference in the 2020 election. >> ken dilanian, phil rucker, thank you both so much. and coming up, the gray revolt. could older americans be the key to predicting whether or not the president can win florida? and that could mean an electoral victory across the country. that's next. stay with us. you're watching msnbc. you're watching msnbc. what if one stalk of broccoli could protect you from cancer? what if one push-up could prevent heart disease? one wishful thinking, right? but there is one step adults 65 or older can take to help prevent another serious disease -

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in north carolina, 30,000 people turned out on the first day of early voting yesterday, believed to be a new record. georgia is reporting more than 1 million voters are already cast their ballots. what does it all mean for the vote count? joining me now is david wasserman, house editor of the cook political report, which took a deep look at sumter county, florida, and thwhy it m be an important clue to following the results on election day. david, great to see you again. i remember being with hillary clinton in 2016 in florida and aides were saying, look at all the people lined up to vote, it turned out they were just cannibalizing the vote that would have otherwise come on election day. >> it's true that we're both seeing historic early voting, and it's a drop in the bucket, because we're headed for likely 150 million to 160 million votes cast, which would be record-shattering. what we know from the polling is that democrats are overwhelmingly planning on voting by mail and in person early. and republicans are following the marching orders of the president and likely to vote on

election day. and it's hard to quantify the impact of that, really. that in and of itself isn't evidence that biden is going to win the election. but what we may see on election day is disproportionately long lines to vote in republican precincts because democrats have front-loaded and banked so many early votes where is republicans are really holding out for november 3. >> and trump is in florida today courting senior voters. you're keeping an eye on sumter county, adopted by senior voters at the villages, it could be, so-called, the gray revolt. what are you seeing there? >> yeah, so, you know, it's going to be difficult this election night to figure out what's going on in a lot of states because a lot of the upper midwestern states are going to need probably days or perhaps even weeks to be able to count all of those mail-in ballots that lean "d." one thing i'll be watching early on election night is florida. and in florida, counts are

permitted to begin counting ballots 22 days before election day. and i'll be watching sumter county which is where the bulk of the villages it, the largest retirement community in florida. the median age there is 68.9 years old. the trump campaign has placed so much importance on the villages that pence visited last weekend, trump is holding a rally tonight in ocala, which is right next door. and democrats took delight in these images last weekend of a flotilla of 500 golf carts with biden flags that were on their way to drop off mail-in ballots. and so that's anecdotal. but what we know from the polls is biden has really made inroads with white seniors, particularly in the last couple of weeks. he's ahead, on average, among seniors, 53-44%. compare that to final polls in 2016 which had trump up amongst seniors 49-44% over clinton. if there is this gray revolt, it

should be apparent early on election night. keep in mind, sumter, in 2016, 84% of the vote there was cast early and they reported their entire batch of early votes pretty shortly after the polls closed. we could know by 7:15 p.m. whether trump has a massive problem with seniors. if he can't win florida, he can't win a second term. service it's that simple, florida is that important. you've also taken a look at numbers that may be a silver lining for him because republicans are outpacing democrats hugely in voter registration in key statements. this is just since the end of the primary season. so we're talking about march. which was more hotly contested on the democratic side than the republican side. so is it that much of a tell? >> it is a silver lining for republicans that they have out-hustled democrats. registrations overall are way down from where they were in 2016 but they're disproportionately down among democrats because they're not the ones who have been door knocking, republicans and the

trump campaign have continued to knock on doors while the biden campaign during the pandemic has really gone to virtual outreach and phone calls which aren't as effective in registering voters. we're also seeing a big downturn in college campus registrations. it's simply been harder to hold those kinds of registration drives when campuses are not at full strength. now, overall, this is a drop in the bucket when you consider that over 30 million voters in those states are going to be casting ballots. and if you ask me whether i would prefer to be the candidate with a recent registration advantage or the candidate who is ahead seven to eight points in key swing states in polls, of course i would rather be the candidate who is up seven or eight. >> which is clearly joe biden. thanks very much, david wasserman, keeping us honest on the polling. about face. chris christie says he was wrong about masks after getting out of the hospital and recovering from

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believe that, you know, all the people i was interacting with at the white house had been tested. and it give you a false sense of security. and it was a mistake. >> joining me now, maria theresa kumar, president and ceo ofpagee moderator of the vice presidential debate last week and steve israel, a former new york senator from new york. first of all, we know chris christie was in the icu for seven dates. he w he w -- days. he has asthma, he was a compromised person. she rather sober about the experience, unlike the president. >> you know, we heard word we don't hear from president trump. i was wrong, i should have worn a mask. we should all follow the cdc glievenls he didn't directly criticize president trump. the implicit message is president trump is not doing the right thing in not encouraging

americans to follow those guidelines, andrea. >> in a repeat phone call with constituents, meanwhile, we don't hear much of this anymore, republican senator ben sass who is occasionally critical of the president now he's survived a primary is sharply critical. but in a private conversation that he may or may not have known was going to be leaked by supporters, is his handling of the coronavirus the foreign policy, the washington examiner obtained an audio recording of the calm. take a listen to this. >> the way he kisses dictator's butts. the united states now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership. the way he tweets women and spend like a sailor and mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. his family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity and flirted with white supremacists. at the beginning of the covid-19 cases, he refused to treat it seriously. >> so, steve, he also warned that a loss for trump would mean a quote republican blood bath in

the senate. what do you make of his attack? are they beginning to jump from the ship? >> well, by the way, somebody's going to get a loving tweet from donald trump at some point today any minute. this ill astronauts the fundamental dichotomy in the republican party. you have senators and members of congress, former colleagues of mean who favor many of the president's policies but very strongly disfavor his presidency. and the question has been for the past three-and-a-half years, at what point do that i break? create distance? mitt romney kind of chipped the ice when he voted to impeach the president. yesterday senator sass maybe widens that crack in the ice. but at the end of the day, and for as long as so many elected republicans feel that they are caught between the trump base and whatever moderates are left in their states, they're going to cast their lot with the trump base. >> and maria, it's no secret the president is losing support

among suburban women and recently was calling out to them. please like me, like me, look what i have done with your suburbs. his performance last night is going to help him with that key demographic. >> not at all. i think when you have someone like governor christi saying, please wear masks and last night in his debate he said 85% of people that wear masks get covid. which is absolutely not true that does not help his case. right now with biden talking very much about policy issues at yesterday's debate but counterposed as well with the fact that kamela harris when she debated was able to connect with a lot of suburban white women that came back to the party in 2018, they are providing people not only with a vision but also with a way out of this anxiety of what, how are we going to get out of this mess. and that has everything to do with tone, with policy. most women right now are taking a step back if they may be in suburban areas and say, which candidate is going to keep my family safe?

who can i trust that is thinking in the long term to get us out of this mess. and president trump has shown repeatedly that he does not have that capacity to have that, you know that vision but also reassure us that we will be better under his watch. >> and susan, you are writing a biography of nancy pelosi. it has been one year since the speaker of the house and the president of the united states spoke. in the mild of the pandemic and all the other crises we've endured. it's remarkable. >> this is the moment when their relationship really fractured. you know when the 2008 financial approached, the fact that speaker pelosi had not spoken to president bush for several months, not as long as a year. they were at odd itself over the war in iraq. but this one year that leaders of two co-equal branches of government fought speaking to one another through crisis and controversy, that is really

remarkable, know, they're still holding out hope for having some kind of covid relief bill passed. it's been very difficult to. it's the kind of thing that traditionally required the president to step in to get over the finish line. >> and susan, the moderator of last week's presidential debate. any thoughts on next week's matchup given what we saw last night? >> i am that great we will have a debate. the town halls are great. i love it when voters can see theme interact with one another. i'm looking forward to it. i know kristen welker will do a great job. >> indeed, she will. and, in fact, it will make it a lot easier on all of us who had to watch last night. because going back and forth and trying to watch both of them and catch up with what we have missed was not an easy task. it was a late night, indeed. thank you so much. susan, thanks again for your

moderating of that debate. it was helpful for all of us to see kamela harris and mike pence at least in a civil debate. mostly civil debate. a little interrupting going on, but that was mostly on him, but it was very, very productive for all of us. it's been a busy week. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tonight watch the premier of the way i see it. it's a new droumt documentary showing life inside the obama and reagan administrations through the renowned u.s. photographer pete souza. but first, chuck todd with mtp daily after a short break. booster

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. if it's friday, cases are surging. hospitalizations are rising. an election is approaching. and winter is coming. plus, president trump continues to insist we are turning the corner as we surpass 8 million cases in an nbc news town hall, my colleagues range from election integrity and everything in between and rudy guiliani as a russia asset? new reporting on what the intelligence learned with russian agents and did or did not tell the white house.