good day everyone. welcome to weekends with alex witt. 17 days to the election and president trump and joe biden out on the campaign trail this weekend focusing on battleground states as november 3rd draws near. the president in michigan, wisconsin and nevada. joe biden heads to north carolina. another day of campaigning today for the president after making a big election prediction. >> we are doing an incredible job in this country. this country is great and we have spirit like nobody's had spirit and there's going to be a red wave next week. it's going to be unbelievable.

and they're talking about it. >> as he heads to michigan today, joe biden fresh off an event in detroit. the former vice president slamming trump for shrugging off a plot to kidnap michigan governor gretchen whitmer. >> all president trump does is fan the flames of hatred and division in this country. telling the proud boys in a debate with me when i said, will you condemn them, he said i'll tell them to stand back and stand by. what the hell's the matter with this guy? attacking governor whitmer on the same day this plot was exposed the. it's despicable. >> and with the next presidential debate just five days away, we're learning the topics selected by our colleagues msnbc kristen welker, fighting kvcoronavirus, race in america, climate change, national security and leadership. meanwhile, democracy in action across the country in the streets and at the polls.

the second women's march of 2020 is under way in hundreds of cities, that includes washington, d.c. and new york. demonstrators rallying against the president's agenda including his attempt to fill ruth bader ginsburg supreme court seat. millions of americans wielding their power art the polls some braving long lines to cast ballots. here in durham, north carolina, one of several states shattering early voting records, as it stands, more than 61 million mail-in ballots requested. more than 21 million mail-in and early in-person ballots already returned. it is now day three, in fact, of early voting in the state of north carolina. from durham, nbc's lee ann caldwell. what have you heard from those who decided to vote in-person today? >> reporter: alex, we changed locations. now where we are get out the early vote rally meeting type of

event held by democrats. actress kerry washington is expected to arrive any moment and in durham here because it's a heavily democratic district. the key for democrats winning top to bot unof the ballot is high enthusiasm, high voter turnout, something we've seen from voters over the past two days i've been here especially from phyllis, a voter from durham this morning. here what she had to say. >> it's not that aye didn't hi a trust in them. i wanted confirmation, a personal confirmation for myself to say, i got there. i filled it out. i put it in the slot. to make sure that, i'm making sure my vote counts. i don't want to have any, any, you know, thought that this ere going to be a delay.

something's going to happen. they're still counting after election day. i wanted to make sure it was there. >> reporter: alex, i have heard that over and over again from voter after voter that they showed up, stood in line at the early vote polls because they wanted to make sure that their ballot was counted. there has been too many things, they said, they've heard in the news from social media that there could be problemans with mail-in ballot and likely why you're seeing he's long lines in north carolina. >> thank you for that. so is the early voting data shaping up differently than in years' past? my colleague mismbs richard lui joins me now. should we think of early voting data as election day results in advance? >> alex good day. as of today you can see the latest data we have at nbc news,

already increased since yesterday. friday, october 16th. already at 21 million today. get into the data we know as of yesterday compared to a year ago on the very same date. 18.8 million early votes. all right. compare that to 2016. look at this number. 4.6 million. now, this, if you compare it, four times greater, alex. is it more? yes. and does it give us a sense, getting a, sort of an intimation what might happen. now look at some voting, when we look at the midwest. this is the key midwestern firewall we were looking at back in 2012. look at the numbers compared to, again, friday, yesterday, to today. this is when barack obama, if you remember, did quite well in the midwest. put up percentages. numbers that are huge here. of note, michigan, wisconsin and

ohio. look at the numbers here. yeah. 66% down here with iowa, but alex, look at minnesota. up almost five times. wisconsin, over 300%. michigan, that jewel of midwestern swing vote states. 283. indiana, 288, in ohio another jewel, 147. get into other swing states that i think you'll be watching. i know you have. a similar story in other traditionals. pennsylvania, i heard in your last hour, guest saying, this is the keystone, right? this is a keystone. it is a big 535%, again, we're not even 2.5 -- still two and a half weeks away. which party is in the lead? well -- >> yeah. >> -- 50% of early voting is democratic. 32% republican, 15% other. how does that dpcompare to 2016?

the numbers, democrats doing better as of this date one year ago. see the difference horizontally. alex, key point, look at the gap here. 18% is the gap. democrats far ahead compared to 2016. only 7%. that allows democrats here to concentrate here. that's on the other, swing vote, while republicans are struggling both on the early vote, alex as well as the swing vote at the same time. >> you did that so well. can i just say one time i had to take over for steve kornacki. my palms were sweating. >> i remember. did well. >> one time. how well i did. so yeah to you, my friend. good job. thank you so much. with me, abby livingston.

and abby, reach out to you because you're in texas. equally staggering numbers. more than 2 million already cast ballots, done ither in person or by mail more than 15% of all ret registered voter. a sense of politics and how it looks now in texas and how much you think texas is in play? is it truly purple? is there a chance that it can go democratic? >> i think there's a chance. but i don't want to put odds to it. >> hmm. you know what? looks like abby's frozen just for a moment. hayes, to you way question. the final push we're in now, too little too late? because when you already have this many people, 21 million americans, who cast ballots already, you know, i asked earlier. others on the broadcast, who's left? who has not made up their mind yet? >> that's a great question, and there are, have to be people out there, just by the large, large numbers. people out there not quite who

have made up their mind whether or not to cast their ballot for donald trump or going for joe biden. whether it's a hold your nose situation or i don't have enough information unclear, but they have to exist. early voting numbers are amazing, huge, incredible. up over four years ago, but we have to keep in mind part of this push in the last couple of weeks is going to be for republicans to turn out people for election day. thanks to the president, his messaging about how mail-in voting is dangerous. et cetera, et cetera. we're going to see on election day a large number of republicans, his supporters turning out that day. day of. when the votes are counted, as we're trying to figure what's going on with the mail invotes and with early votes a bit too soon to say, oh, look, early voting numbers are high. therefore the president will do badly by election day. >> hmm. let me ask you about something you wrote on the supreme court

nomination. supreme justice amy coney barrett would erase the constitutional history. what do you mean by that? what concerns you most and how much do you think the supreme court is weighing in and is a factor in the leadup to the election now? >> i wish i could say the supreme court was more of a factor. we know it was in 2016. we know that republicans were being turned out on this promise that trump would confirm conservative judges. i don't know if it matters this much around even with amy coney barrett hearings going on. my point what i wrote about, barrett and her mentor the late antonin scalia consider themselves originalists. look at the text of the constitution. we don't want to resfwerinterpr for modern times don't think it's changed thins r since it was written and we don't want it to change. sounds like they have history on their side. the weight of over a century, over two centuries of history

backing them and their views, but if you look, think about how deeply the constitution was changed postthe war, the reconstruction era with the 13th, 14th, 15th amendment, how they change how we think of america, who be a citizen, how we think about race in america, if you don't apply that to your ruling, seems like a justice barrett would not, then it's hard to say that you are pushing history, pushing an original view of the constitution. that you're going just to the text of the constitution. if you ignore whole chunks of it that were written later. >> hmm. hayes, as you listen to amy coney barrett answering all the questions, did you get a sense how she would vote on the aca? we know that's presented one short week after election day. right? november 10. that will be placed before the supreme court. she will potentially be on the supreme court if all goes according to mitch mcconnell's plan.

do you know how she would vote on that? did you get a sense? >> i get the sense based only her writings and academic work before she became a guch sjudge like lick skeptic of the claims put forward in california. she did her best to not answer those questions, when they were brought forward. tried to put it off on the ginsburg rule, oh, i can't talk about cases i might rule on later. justice ruth bader ginsburg answered questions up and down while she was being confirmed by the senate. ginsburg rule doesn't really exist in that matter but i digress. i think she will look at the case and she will probably wind up voting with the conservative majority. not a guarantee. always being surprised by the supreme court. it's not as easy as we think to say, oh, they're a conservative justice, a liberal justice.

the aca was saved by justice john roberts, took us all by surprise and when he decided that the individual mandate was attacked and was constitutional. we'll see. the big question i think here will be serverability. whether you can have the law stand without the individual mandate, which congress got rid of, and coin flip in my mind whether we see that the aca actually taken down by december. >> okay. hayes brown, thank you for joining me. appreciate your insight. sorry we lost abby livington but we'll bring her back next time. thank you. head to washington, d.c. thousand, gather for the 2020 women's march. one are more than 400 marches scheduled across the country today. joining me now, cori coffin from washington. very loud behind you last time. lots of energy. what's going on now? >> reporter: yeah. the marchers have begun walking, alex. quick i will reference that

noise you hear, the stage is right behind us, but pretty far away. it's very loud. i apologize if it's difficult hearing. walk you through what year seeing here. hopefully you can see the street. get you closer to the street in a second. people have come out by the thousands. this permit originally for 10,000. the likelihood they've gone over everybody that is really high based on what we see here. we know they'll walk from the supreme court and hearing they might encounter counterprotestors. hearing there are people culminating out there. see if you can look at the walkers. we hear there could be a group over at the supreme court of the united states. that has a counterprotest. we'll see if the people will stop. any duelling protests, but we did speak with some different groups. also now been associated with the women's march including black lives matter and one fair wage. listen to what they told me about kind of the inauguration

of these coming together for this cause. ♪ i'm every woman >> we cannot expect people to go to work and live on a submin ma'am mall wage. it's not right. it's not fair. we're here to fight noor and fo women, let the president, republicans, democrats know alike we're essential, we matter and we're voting. >> such great inequality the only thing to defeat that is a mass uprising of people. that's what you've got. >> reporter: all right. we'll keep looking, alex, but this is the second willing march this year. back in january. the next one, holding it two and a half weeks before the election because of how important these issues are and where we're at in 2020. so as far as we know they'll be marching all the way to the national mall where they wrap things up after the supreme

cou court. >> cori coffin, the music is so loud you have license to dance, my friend, between now add the next get-together. thank you so much. you got it. joining me, the trump campaign, leaving for musk gaughmuskigan, michigan. hope i said that right. my colleague is joining me from, you can go ahead and say the name, my friend. i'm not sure i said it properly, but after you do that, tell me what we're hearing from the president amid this final stretch? >> reporter: muskegon, michigan, alex. very, very close. talking to folks here, you can pronounce it a couple ways. consensus is ma keegamuskegon. talked to supporters of the president, thousands expected to gather on a tar marque behind me for the afternoon rally in a couple of hours. really, though, we have to

stress the backdrop to all of this, alex, as you know, you've been talking about it throughout your shows is the coronavirus pandemic, which to the people here you wouldn't necessarily go it was going on. we have a mass public gathering as we've seen as many trump rallies. michigan covid cases are spiking. a trend we've seen across the midwest concerning health officials and lawmakers here. particularly the governor gre gretchen whitmer, a democrat and target of the president. we can expect to hear more on that. the president is sure to mention her. he's continually mocked her. they've engage 23d in a busines back and form and he continues to mock her even though there was a plot to kill her and kitna her was the center of the conversation. the president mocked her after that news came out. she appealed for him to tone the temperature down on that, but i think if we know what his

rhetoric has been in the past, he's likely to do that again today. talk about the pandemic and as it looms over all of these rallies, stull have the white house just calling these spikes embers and flames, and saying that the task force is gathering daily when we know that's notes case. not formally. look at what white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany had to say on this exact topic earlier today at the white house. >> the president is out and about, task force meeting each and every day. doctors on the airwaves, in local media addressing these communities directly. >> reporter: while the vice president, the chair of the coronavirus task force does meet more frequently with those members, the president hasn't really been a key part of any major task force meeting in weeks, we understand. he really has been delegating that to the vice president, and as kayleigh mcenany said there in that sound bite, because the president and vice president are out on the trail so much, that's

where the focus is. and here in battleground michigan, it's a state the president narrowly won in 2016. it was critical to his victory, the rust belt notching of michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania, but coming here to muskegon county where hillary clinton won by just a little bit. hoping to turn out his message, talking about the pandemic stressing in his opinion we're rounding the corner. numbers here just do not prove that, though, alex. >> okay. in muskegon, michigan. thank you. rapper ice cube facing criticism for working with the trump administration. he took to 9 digital airwaves to explain. the man who interviewed him joins me next. s me next.

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rapper and actor ice cube facing backlash after one of trump's senior advisers revealed he is working with the administration.

ice cube tried to clear the air saying he reached out to both candidates about his plans for black america and the trump campaign, first to respond. >> the trump campaign came to me and asked me to explain to them some of the contract with black america. that's what i did. i'm not play nothing more of these games, these political games. we're not a part of a team. we have very broad problems. especially the wealth gap in this country when it comes to black americans. i'm going to whoever's in power and talk to them specifically about our problems. not talking about minorities or people of color or diversity or noon of th none of that stuff but for black americans the one whose are descendants of slaves. >> joining me host and editor of the digital show "roland martin unfiltered" thank you for being here. >> hey.

>> clayed th ed thaed that clip cuomo. you also sat down with ice cube. do you think this was justified? >> i sat down with ice cube before chris cuomo. i had ice cube on my show a month and a half ago and on thursday, we had a 40-minute conversation and we went through all of these various issues. first of all, so he made it clear he's not working with the campaign. he did connect with the biden campaign. what he said to me was that they said, look, we agree with 85% of what you're saying and connect with you after the election. the biden/harris folks saying we're not the ones in power. ice cube, in my interview said that trump was committed to $500 billion in their so-called platinum plan. alex, total b.s. i went through the entire plan pap two-page plan. understand, platinum plan two pages. lift every voice and black

american plan is 22 pages. the rally, i said to ice cube. look. what they committed to, there is no commitment. there's nothing substantive behind it. so i totally understand his point in terms of, yes, when in power, then african-americans still should make demands of you. i said that for years as well. most african-americans live under republican legislators and understand that. the question, can you trust the folks doing it? be real. the trump folks, all they wanted was ice cube's stamp of approval saying he actually contributed to their platinum plan. they wanted the p.r. hit and got it. that's what they wanted. >> roland, when you point out with him a two-page plan versus a 22-page plan, what's his reaction to that? >> he said was, look, both don't go far enough. inwi which is true. i said last month, cube, we texted toyed and texts before on

and after. i said you also got to have an infrastructure in place to then carry out what it is you want. here's the deal. say biden/harris wins. we have to as a. philip randolph, was taught by roosevelt. make me do it. we have to make him do it. infrastructure in place of supports. i said to him, brought on alicia garza a black census project surveyed 30,000 african-americans of kbha thwha wanted. cube, partner with her, tamika malory, untold freedom. new york justice league. a number of entities out here with infrastructure, policy people. lobbyists, to get it. again, ice cube alone as a rapper/actor making demands will not get it.

>> roll up your sleeves and actually get the work done. he said he started this. wanted to see a greater emphasis on plaque americanblack america people of color or minorities. how about either campaign? have they done enough to speak to black voters and addressing their concerns? >> the trump campaign doesn't waste their time with black people. putting out a show like diamonds and silk, and folks like candice owens and that tool in georgia, they're not serious. donald trump has not spoken to any black major organization. only talk to african-american whose support him. he is not serious. the white house made it clear. their goal, attract 20% of black men and quickly went to ice cube, talking to kahne west and other people a. the biden campaign have more outreach towards african. be clear to them, do more as well. polling data showing black male

support that trump is getting in certain candidates they're getting in michigan and north carolina. got to do more. i've said, look, black people, democrats cannot win without black people. you must court them, you must drop money to black media outlets and you must -- approach them to do more, that's how you actually do it. got to push hem them to do it. >> based on what you say why is the trump campaign doubling support with black men over black women? we note typically black women are the one whose actually go to the polls, stand in line. not that black men don't but women in a far greater number. >> right. >> how is it trump is bringing up the black male vote? >> it's not just donald trump. in 2012 a nine-point gap for obama/biden and 13 between

hillary clinton and donald trump. you have black men out there, when i say a lot talking percentages. vast majority of black men are supportive of these policies, but these are black men disaffected, black men who say they believe democrats are too supportive of immigrationers. when donald trump talks about bidding a wall, this 50% to 20 percent of black men, appeals to them. talking about economic policies. so i say to democrats back in 2012, got a problem. saw it in 2016. aware of the problem, but what have have to do, be serious saying wait a minute. we've got to compete after every vote. this is simple. if democrats keep going after disaffected white women who vote for republicans, we better go to disaffected black men as wellmeans listening to them. terrence woodbury a great pollster doing focus groups on this. cornell belford another african-american pollster doing this. ron lester as well. i say to the democratic party,

listen to your black pollsters, black consultens, african-americans who understand these issues and part of the problem is too many campaigns including democrats have white advisers running campaigns who are not em pow herbing, and listening to african-american political experts. that's where you start. >> giving me a quick agenciesment what you talk-- as home state. emotional for you. show the viewers your instagram page. here it is, everyone. >> i want y'all to see this. this is friendship baptist church. in dallas. look at y'all. massive line -- polls only open 27 hours. 27 minutes. look at these cars. >> look at you. crying there, my friend. what did that mean for you. >> well, when i go vote i listen to freedom songs. i listen to i woke up this morning by john legend, glory by

common and john legend. a song 2020 riots how many times. it's a powerful song and it hit me. i wasn't expecting that. literally. i'm serious. it was 50 degrees in dallas. these folks in line the day before, all black women in a beat up car with a handicap sticker. i walked around the church parking lot. this where voting taking place tomorrow? where do we go? she was doing her advance work for the next day. i thought about black people who literally couldn't vote. i thought about black women who couldn't get the right to vote until the '55 voting rights act and then thought about every effort republicans have been doing to stop the vote, alan west, republican party in texas, sued against curb-side and drive-up voting. greg abbott, one drop box in the whole county and black people have shown america what democracy really is and that's the whole point, and so when you have republicans who have voter

suppression tactics in every state in this country, black folks in 2020 are saying, y'all can keep doing the same stuff that democrats, southern dixiecrats did during jim crow. we're still coming out, stand in line, vote by mail and the tears were there because our ancestors died for it and dammit, our folks today said we're yirzi ine pow herb er of the ballot. >> amen. appreciate it. the job telling fauci when he wasn't wanted in the coronavirus meetings and we're going to ask her about that, next. ♪ ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th--

shhh. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

a member of the white house coronavirus task force is speaking out in defense of dr. anthony fauci after the trump campaign used clips of the doctor in a campaign ad. >> i'm olivia troy and worked on the coronavirus task force from

day one with dr. anthony fauci. i witnessed donald trump and senior white house advisers criticize dr. fauci publicly and privately. and now mixing his words in a campaign ad for their own political gain. it's gross and upsetting. >> she shared that video along with the tweet, i placed the calls to fauci when they didn't want him in the press white house briefing room. a former homeland security task force adviser to vice president mike pence and now a member of republican voters against trump. olivia, glad to talk with you and bring you on the show. i have so many questions. he didn't want him in the briefing rhyme aoom and why, wh directed to you make those calls and what did they suggest you say to dr. fauci when making those calls? >> well, first, they didn't suggest a language what to say to him. they just said, you've got to call and say you're not included in today's briefing.

figure it out basically what i was told in the language used and usually done last minute and chaos and disorganization 101. i will say in terms of drf drfr a dr. fauci he's not the only one i had to call and tell you're not welcome to the briefing today. it was repeatedly done because with dr. fauci he doesn't waver saying how it is, never has, from the first day i saw him, he would spike teak the truth and science and data backing him every single day. for the white house a frustrating situation with dr. fauci, because they couldn't control him. couldn't control the narrative he was saying. >> olivia, again, who told you you had to make those calls and if it wasn't from the top itself, do you believe that directive came from the top? >> it absolutely did, and it was the white house communications

team that told me directly. the ones that set up the briefings, the ones that actually will set up where people stand during the briefing. i remember -- i remember a discussion about talking about the fact that perhaps they should be socially distanced onstage since that's what we told the american public and soon we see the briefing becomes socially distanced. directly from the top driven down. a communications effort to make sure that some of these doctors are not heard. i saw it happen to dr. birx. it happened to dr. redfield and happened to dr. hahn. every one of these doctors i had an unfortunate conversation saying you're not needed today. to be honest, i had that call to secretary azar as well. and the secretary was angry. when i called and said you're not included today. he said this is a public health response. i should absolutely be there. >> so you anticipated my question, then. what was dr. fauci's reaction

when told? did he know he was being sidelined? did he say, i get it. i know what they're doing? >> well i think he realized that when i said, you know, it's not me. right? >> hmm. >> it's not -- me. doing this. and i know this is hard for all of you. i've watched it. i mean, i don't think he wavered on it. he understood it. he's a complete gentlemen and professional. i don't think it felt great for any of these people to be treated this way and what you see now is, you see dr. fauci just give interviews, thank goodness, where he continues to talk about what's happening. talking about what we're seeing in the winter. warning about this for months, all of them have. >> yeah. >> and, yeah. i mean, you just see quite frankly the white house's disregard wanting it pout out the truth and just wanted to

could cover it up. >> dr. fauci never wavered from the truth. an interview you said this about the coronavirus task force. it is everything that horrifies you, quote/unquote. whoop were those meetings like? what specifically horrified you? >> i think the issue is we would be having some pretty heated debates and discussions about things that needed to be done, but it is horrifying when you have advocates in the room at the senior level, for example, advocating for the opening of summer camps. and get these camps open. get these kids out of in these summer camps. >> what was the lodgics when they would say that. >> i think they quantitied to, they are pushing the narrative everything of fine. the virus is overblown. we are reopening the country. we've got to get people back to normal. an soon as possible yet the data didn't so that. >> olivia, when they said those things to you, do you get a

sense they actually believed what they were saying? discrediting the science and dr. fauci, discrediting the numbers -- eastern heard those who say, ah. the numbers are fake, made up. it's all conspiracy stuff. do you get a sense these people knew they were not adhering to the truth? >> i'll be honest. i think it's mixed. there are people on the white house staff that know that this is very real, and dangerous. and then there are those who know that it's really dangerous yet continue to disregard it and they speak about it like it's not real. so when you have this dynamic around you every single day, it makes it incredibly hard to respond to a pandemic of this magnitude especially way pandemic in the country and continue every sge detail. >> you were an adviser to mike

pence and must have had exposure into his real feelings about the president. what does pence think of trump? >> you know, vice president pence is a consummate gentleman and professional and keeps his cards close. i think he understand that president trump is the boss. this is the ticket he has signed up to and with, and i think he walk as fine line every single day. i see a man who consistently struggles given his faith and trying to do the right thing. i have seen him as a very genuinely caring person. and i think watching the situation play out of what happens when sometimes people trying to do what's right or perhaps good people who are stuck who get themselves in a really damned and impossible situation. >> hmm.

olivia troy, sobering conversation. come see me again. good to have you. meantime, new york governor andrew cuomo delivered big news in the battle against coronavirus just this last hour and why that news may be important to my next guest. re-entering data that employees could enter themselves? that's why i get up in the morning! i have a secret method for remembering all my hr passwords. my boss doesn't remember approving my time off. let's just... find that email. the old way of doing business slows everyone down.

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this just in. new york governor andrew cuomo allowing all movie theaters outside of new york city to reopen at 25% capacity coming down this coming friday.

it comes after the global federation pen add letter saying studios will continue to be reluctant releasing new films if it's biggest market new york does not reopen theaters. joining me oscar nominated and tony award winner john lithgow and author of" trumpty dumpty versus a crown in a despotic age." so glads to have you here. what does this mean for the film industry, real quick? got to at least lift spirits? >> i just heard about it first time from you and i think it's great news. it's one of those little incremental stages we're going to go through i think the next year if not more. i'm just waiting for it to happen with broadway theaters. that's the saddest story in new york right now. >> yeah. i know. absolutely. >> among the saddest stories,

yes rnlgtsz a yes. >> you and i spoke about that last weekend, the domino effect of the industry and taking down restaurants and tourism and the like. >> yeah. >> when the pandemic hit, john, it put most production on hold, if not virtually all. we're seeing some resuming, new safety measures. sometimes two steps forward, one step back. how about you? any productions back in production yet? >> it's an extraordinary bit of timing, alex. i had done two months of a new series for fx with jeff bridges that was suspended in february, and i just went back to work on thursday. two days ago. and it's -- well, were we on our way to mirotiorocco for two mos completely canceled. morocco is in santa anita, california. you didn't know that, and in fact looks very much like

morocco. viewers, what it's like to make a movie now, we are behaving in microcosm the way the whole country should have started behaving in february. it is extraordinary, the protocols. i'm working with about 80 people, and everybody is constantly tested. the only time my mask is off is when a camera is rolling. and, of course, all of the extras have to, everybody else, okay. masks off! off come the masks. shoot and the masks go right back on including me and the directors and simply we feel safe and, of course, no one has felt safe for months now. >> yeah. just do it to get it done. let's move to the book, john. during your time off you have your new book released, "trumpty dumpty" taking a satirical look at the trump administration coming to life in a new web series. playing part of that for viewers, take a listen.

>> oh, good. >> a viral cuisine, covid-19 offered to each civilian, to 800 million. >> it's quick and easy to prepare. microbial fare. preheat the nation with misinformation and take what other so confusion and distrust make your crust. insist on sycophantic praise with the glaze. >> okay. i'm going to take back what i said in the commercial break which is i wasn't going to blow smoke and say how great this is because it's so good. it's so clever. it's detailed. i just have to ask how difficult it was to write this and what inspired you to do this. >> well, i'm not sure inspired is the right word. i was sort of -- i was instigated. donald trump is entirely the reason this and my proceeding book of last year were written.

it was a kind of deep dive into moment to moment current events. living my life the way you and your journalist colleagues at msnbc live and i watched a lot of msnbc. the trump administration is a motherlo motherlode of these stories and bizarre characters. i would research every one of them as the events exploded. i started the project in december. look what's happened since. impeachment, the pandemic, the economic collapse, black lives matter activism and in realtime, i was writing satirical verse about this.

>> yeah, you said it was hard to keep up with the bouncing ball of news. >> i never could have done it if there had not been a lockdown. in way it was an extraordinary way to experience this historical moment. it was done the end of april. look what's happened since. the month of may i did all my illustrations for it. ? some cases i got to catch up with current events with drawings rather than with poems.

that event happened after i finished my last poem. all i could do was draw about it. >> i'm looking at the incredible number of people who have agreed to read your poems. we have seen meryl streep there. whoopi goldberg. newman. what was the reaction when you said would you mind reading my poems? >> yes. the reaction was yes and they said it that quickly. this was about 19 or 20 people. i was amazed. i thought i would be lucky to get about a tenth of those people. they were perfectly happy and delighted to do it. for one thing, they had nothing else to do. actors are not employed these days. it gave them something, some way to express their feelings in an

entertaining mode. we're all entertainers. i threw in james carville and john tester and steve schimdt. they are not entertainers but very entertaining. i found these wonderful three guys who created the studios. they devised this amazing combination of their performances and my illustrations brought to life. i'm ann animator. i missed my calling. >> no, you didn't. that's just something extra. it's so good. thank you so much for joining us. trumpty dumpty wanted a crown. good to see you. >> alex, thank you. so much. this was great. >> thank you. battleground push. the famous faces hitting the campaign trail in support of joe biden with over two weeks now until the election day. r two weo until the election day before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new?

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