if it's monday, president trump desperately searching for a way to turn this election around, and he's revving up his 2016 playbook and we just learned that he told campaign staff today that joe biden is, quote, a criminal who should be, quote, in jail. plus, president trump calling dr. anthony fauci, quote, a disaster after fauci says the white house has restricted his media appearances and inaccurately quoted him and as

experts warns the worst of this pandemic is yet to come. a massive financial rescue package hanging in the balance as negotiators on capitol hill and at the white house try to hammer out a deal that can go into effect before election day. ♪ welcome to monday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm steve kornacki in for chuck todd. with 15 days to go now until election day the situation facing the president and his campaign is growing more and more urgent. nationally, polls continue to place joe biden's advantage over the president at nearly ten points. in key battlegrounds the margins aren't quite as wide but biden does still lead. virus cases are rising as the president tries to convince

voters we have turned the corner. votes meanwhile are pouring in. more and more states are opening up their polls for early voting and for mail-in balloting. 25 million people now have already cast ballots in this election. the president is hittings the trail playing defense. these visits to states he won four years ago with rallies now on deck in arizona, pennsylvania, and north carolina. and he's amping up his rhetoric as well today. he said that joe biden is, quote, a criminal who should be in jail. this was during a call with campaign staff where he ripped into dr. anthony fauci. we will have more on that call in a moment. all of this comes after a weekend of rallies where the president attacked biden as crowds chantd to lock up an array of his political opponents. >> joe biden is and always has been a corrupt politician.

he always has been. and as far as i'm concerned, the biden family is a criminal enterprise. it really is. look at what's going on. it's a criminal -- you know -- what you're doing in michigan has been amazing. you have to get your governor to open up your state, okay. lock them all up. it doesn't hurt that in minnesota they have ilhan omar. >> lock her up. >> no. we're going to win. i'll tell you something -- lock them up. you should lock them up. lock up the bidens. lock up hillary. >> lock them up. >> lock them up. >> lock them -- it's true. >> the biden campaign and plenty of democrats, of course, are mindful of what happened four

years ago when trump endured a brutal mid-october stretch including the release of the "access hollywood" tape only to pull out a win on election day. biden's campaign manager is telling supporters that this race is closer than they might think. joining me now outside the white house is shannon, my msnbc colleague ali velshi on the ground in tucson, arizona, ahead of the president's rally this afternoon and mike memoli is following the biden campaign in nashville, tennessee, head of thursday's debate and kerry sanders is in south florida where today in person early voting is kicking off. shannon, let me start with you, there's now news of this call the president was on with some of his supporters where he has comments about anthony fauci, about joe biden, about the virus. tells us more about the setting

for this, who he was talking to, exactly what he was saying and why we are hearing about it. >> well, this was a call that the president had supposedly organized to rally the troops. a number of reporters were given access to dial in to this call so as much as it was a message to his own campaign staff, you can also assume it was also a message to the media. there have been a number of stories that have said that the staff is feeling deflated rng defeated, nervous where they're at going into the home stretch. the president was trying to bolster up the mood among his campaign staff talking about how he thinks they're in a much better position than they were two or three weeks ago when he was hospitalized, when there were outbreaks of infection among white house staff, his -- you mentioned his campaign aides were saying a few moments ago they were confident they're going to win florida, georgia, nevada, and see the race

tightening in michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. we got as you mentioned on this call a look into the president's mindset when it comes to the coronavirus. he actually said that he believes that people are tired of hearing about covid, i've had the biggest rallies ever and we have covid -- people are saying whatever, just leave us alone. they are tired of it. so giving some thinking into the rallies where we see people packed together without masks, not social distancing, not following any of the guidelines. the president called anthony fauci on "60 minutes" last night a disaster and said people are tired of hearing fauci and all these idiots. these people have gotten it wrong. fauci is a nice guy, been here for 500 years, going on to disparage dr. fauci who does have a higher approval rating than the president. insight into where the president is thinking with this virus, which he has just recovered from, his wife has just recovered, his campaign manager has just recovered from,

thinking there as well as trying to project an err air of confid going into the final days of the election. >> just on the piece with dr. fauci, this has been in terms of the rhetoric for a while. to say a disaster, perhaps the most forward thing he said in this. what do folks around him say to you in terms of the politics of this? you mentioned when you look at the polling, when you look at dr. fauci's standing in the polling, an extremely popular figure there, what do the campaign folks tell you about what's happening when the president talks this way? >> consistently they point to this correlation between coronavirus cases going up and the president's poll numbers going down which we have seen go through a number of cycles now and how that affects the senior vote and the campaign was talking about how they're trying to appeal to seniors on this argument of medicare and socialized health care and biden raising your taxes and that's

their closing message to seniors, whereas we repeatedly see in the polls seniors number one concern is coronavirus and something we've seen the biden campaign try to harness with and effectively to this point when you look at the president's falling poll numbers with seniors. >> ali velshi to you in arizona, the president on his way there. we're showing some of the clips from what he was saying on the stump this weekend, probably a preview of what you will be hearing this afternoon in arizona, a critical state for the president, carried it by a few points in 2016. democrats believe they have a shot of flipping it. tell us about the political environment the president is walking into this afternoon? >> well, he's got -- he's hitting it twice this afternoon. he will be in prescott a few hours and a few miles from me on the other side of tucson at the airport. this is an interesting state as you know better than anyone else. joe biden leading in the polls in the state, but the senate race is yet wider, at least

appears to be, with mark kelly, captain mark kelly, former astronaut, husband of gabby giffords, running head of martha mcsally, both military people both with a pedigree that resonates in this state. martha mcsally working hard to distance herself to the fact she's voted with trump initiatives 99% the other time. she was asked does she regret being as close to donald trump as she is and she wouldn't give a straight answer to is. this is another state remarkably motivated in voting and donald trump like pennsylvania and florida where he's spending time, he needs to hold other places that were closer than arizona and he's still got to dedicate time now to coming in here and trying to shore up the votes he's got. there are a lot of reasons why the vote looks to be going the way it's going in arizona. we're going to talk about some of them later with mark and a voter panel i held on the border. immigration being probably one of the biggest deals in this

state, more questions today about the border wall, the supreme court chiming in on the funding of the border wall using pentagon funds to do that and trying to figure out whether that is legal. this is at the heart of the campaign tore donald trump in arizona. his hardline on immigration. he's got about two weeks to figure out whether it's going to pay off for him. >> meanwhile, of course, we're talking about the president, there is the question of his opponent, his activity or maybe lack of activity before the debate. mike memoli, not hearing much from joe biden today, what's going on behind the scenes and are we going to hear much or at all from him before this upcoming debate? >> no, steve. in fact, joe biden is in wilmington today visiting one of the local theaters we think he might be doing some of his debate prep in addition to recording some virtual activities that may pop up during the week. it's a measure of how important they think the second, not third and final debate, could be as you look back at 2016 and what they remember about candidate

trump then. he was a different candidate in the final few weeks of that campaign. much more disciplined and on message. the biden campaign guarding against that. there was a time when the biden campaign was really at war with a lot of the bed wetters as they like to call them in the party, those who were seeing doom and gloom where the biden campaign didn't in the polls and in other metrics but now the biden campaign warning about complain sensy. when you're the candidate with the double digit leads in the polls you're running not only just against your opponent but complacency. if you're the biden campaign you would rather be in your own shoes than the trump campaign's position. you see the president traveling to california of all places to try to raise money. joe biden hasn't had an in person fundraiser since march as he continues to outspend the president on the airwaves. they see democrats looking at the early voting numbers playing a lot of political junky games and they don't necessarily think

they should be coming away from those historic early voting numbers thinking this is in the bag at all. i talked to one southeastern bid senior biden campaign official, who said they're doing everything they can to keep the foot on the accelerator. >> it does seem like one of those lessons that came out of 2016. for anybody trying to process this numbers you never know what the same day vote, the election day vote will look like until you get there no matter how big one party may look in the early vote. speaking of the early vote, kerry sanders you're down there in broward county, big democrat county, democrats hoping to get a lot folks out for early voting. it's begun. what are you seeing? >> well, there was a long line here this morning before the polls even opened at 7:00. some of those folks actually coming here complaining. you can see and hear behind me they're shredding some of the tree limbs as they're coming up, some of the voters saying i don't understand this library

open for early voting has been closed for months because of coronavirus. the one day that early voting begins, this is right at the front door. but nonetheless, it is not stopping those folks who want to vote from getting in line, going inside and voting the line is moving here very steadily. it's important to note that more than 17% really one in 5% of -- one in five voters in florida has actually voted already, steve. so that was all vote by mail. >> all right. kerry sanders in fort lauderdale there. again, you see some of the stats popping up there. we're going to continue to monitor what the ballot requests look like by party. that big variable on election day, you never know exactly who is going to turn out then and how many numbers. lot of different variables here. shannon, mike, kerry, thank you all for being with us. ali velshi, we're going to see you in a few minutes.

you have compelling sound interest your conversation with voterers on the ground in arizona. ahead as well, the state of play in the battlegrounds. just how far behind is trump and what would it take for him to catch up? we'll break it down at the big board. later virus cases are rising and so are the tensions between the president and dr. anthony fauci. president and dr. anthony fauci.

it's footlong season at subway! sub out those greasy wings and get that new subway buffalo chicken! or that new bbq chicken! ooo that's sweet! freshly made footlong coming in hot! now only in the subway app, get a free footlong when you buy two. subway. eat fresh. scott wiener immediately went to work, making sure families could put food on their tables, defending renters facing eviction, securing unemployment benefits, helping neighborhood businesses survive. scott wiener will never stop working until california emerges from this crisis. the bay area needs scott's continued leadership in sacramento. because we know scott is fighting for all of us. re-elect scott wiener for state senate.

. well we're in the final 15 days of this campaign season and it is crunch time for the campaign. let's take a look here first where the race stands nationally and the difference here, this is the poll average, nbc poll average. it's over 9 points here, that's down a tick maybe from a week or so ago but high single digits, a solid national lead for joe biden. we've been talking about that story but as we all know this is an election won in battleground states, a race for 270 electoral

votes. one thing to remember here is the race does look a little bit closer when you go to the battleground states. trump is behind but closer. let's take a look at this in three tiers here. the first tier, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania three traditionally democratic states have not gone republican until trump won them in 2016. trump won them by really narrow margins less than a point in every state, each one of these three states. this is our first tier to look at. what does the poll average look like in these states? these are biden leads and the biggest biden leads you see right now in the battleground states. again we say the battleground states are closer than the national average and you see that here, these are the average leads. the bottom line for joe biden if these numbers hold and he wins michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania, and nothing else

changes on the map, he doesn't need to win anything else. flipping these three states as long as trump doesn't pick off a state he didn't get in 2016, flipping these three with would be enough for biden. trump probably has to find a way to engineer a win if one of these three states. you can see what he's up against. the next tier these three states, these were trump victories in 2016. a little more comfortable. less than 5 points but his margin was a little more comfortable in these three stat. we were what does the poll average look like in these three states right now? again, you're getting biden. these are flair roar than we showed you in the midwest, a point in florida, three in arizona, three in north carolina. trump certainly in striking distance in all three of these states but these are getting close to -- becoming must win states for trump. he's close but behind in all three. he's probably got to get in front in all three states.

how about this, another tier here. these were the more solid trump victories in 2016. georgia, ohio, texas, iowa, getting close to ten points. what do the poll averages look like in these states? they get two here. georgia and iowa where you average the polls, have he very slight biden advantage in the polling right now. slight. but it's still a biden lead there. ohio, trump by a point. texas, trump by four, and again you're just in states here that are must win for trump. we're just taking you through all the battlegrounds here. he could afford to lose maybe two of the three from the midwest there, but nothing else besides that. trump's challenge is the margins are not in the battle grounds or as big as the national lead for biden but he's down in the preponderance of battleground states and he has to turn that around in just about all of them if he wants to get to 270. what the path would look like,

joined by republican strategist brendon buck former adviser to john boehner and paul ryan and joel payne, former senior aide to the clinton campaign. joel, start with you actually, biden is ahead nationally. we went through the swing states. we're two weeks out. i'm curious, as a democrat who looks at this stuff, obviously who lived through 2016, what gives you anxiety right now when you look at the numbers and the map? is there something that gives you anxiety in particular? >> steve, everything gives me anxiety. i'm a political professional. i'm sure brendon could attest to that as well. here's what gives me hope and makes me feel better about this. the fact that you've seen so much energy and enthusiasm. look at georgia and texas where we've seen record numbers of early voting turnout. that spells very good for biden who has invested a lot in gining up enthusiasm in those states. the polling numbers you call out in the other battleground states. in arizona where the president

really and truly is harmed not only by his own poor performance but by his senate candidate martha mcsally struggling against mark kelly, who may drag joe biden over the top in arizona, so states where look, if you kind of use a football par lance you would rather be on the other team's territory than your own territory at this point in the game. the trump folks are definitely fighting to protect their territory as opposed to being proactive and going after other places on the map and that's what has the biden folks feeling good right now. >> brendon, let me ask it to you this way, if a month from now let's say we were talking and turned out that donald trump got re-elected and sort of pulled a rabbit out of the hat like in 2016, can you see from this vantage point a few weeks before the electionhat the sort of things that would have to break for him in the final few weeks to be? what will we be saying a month from now if he were able to turn the deficit into a victory like he got in 2016?

>> the only thing i can think of at this point if joe biden makes a big mistake and obviously look aheads to the next debate for that. the president has really one last opportunity to change the conversation. short of we can have a lot of enthusiasm and i know that the trump campaign has done a lot of voter registration and they've been knocking on doors maybe the way the democrats haven't, but the next debate is key. what the president needs to do if he can summon the discipline is turn to the american people and stop punching joe biden for a minute and tell them look, acknowledge that perhaps people don't like his style, they don't likes the way he tweets or things he says, but under his presidency until this virus came your life was pretty good and he needs to tell them to their faces if joe biden is elect eelected president your taxes are going to be higher, health care could be in danger and things that could make your life worse off. discipline is not necessarily been the president's hallmark so i don't know that he's capable

of doing that but he needs to find some way to change the conversation and the debate is the only thing that's left out there unless joe biden has some type of mistake. he totally steps it in this debate or something else comes out, otherwise he seems to be on a glide path and can stay out of the way for the rest of the time. >> joel, that's the other question here. clearly the biden campaign, we were talking to mike memoli a few minutes ago, the debate is something they're very focused on, what in terms of their preparation for this debate, what should they be doing right now? what should he be ready for in your view? >> well, i'm sure they are prepping the former vice president for all eventualities considering the fact that president trump blew up the last debate and really interrupted any ability for the former vice president to put a full cohesive case together. despite that i think it end up being good for biden. i think what you're going to see and you've seen this in some of the paid advertisements the biden folks have put out lately really just laying out the final

contrast argument it's morning in america with joe biden, right. really demonstrating the difference between whether or not your life was better four years ago than it is right now i think biden will have that in the debate and a successful narrative for him to drive. >> brandon, i wonder about the mood of the rest of the republican party. every once in a while you see headlines out there that are a little reminiscent of the fall of 2016. i can remember in the fall of 2016 there was a strong mood to the institutional republican party that donald trump was on his way to defeat and maybe this was going to endanger the republicans at the house level and senate level and, of course, a lot of folks were surprised by the results. seeing that kind of talk, seeing that kind of chatter right now, the institutional republican party in washington, d.c., congressional leaders, elected officials, how are they looking at this right now? >> well, there's a lot of despair right now and everybody

is seeing the same polls you are and it looks bad and private polling probably looks worse in some of these key races. you have senators running behind the president in three or four points and that's really tough. as we showed when he's already losing a lot of these battle grounds. i think there's going to be a lot of chatter in washington about potential soul searching and a party trying to rebuild itself. i'm really pessimistic about that because i think, you know, you saw john cornyn come out with comments somewhat critical of him but the president still has firm control over republican base voters and until that changes, republicans are not really going to be able to throw him under the bus or walk away as much as that may be healthy for the fewer of the party i think, i imagine the president will still have a stranglehold and prevent us as a party if he loses from being able to move forward to reassess who we are. >> all right. brendon and joel, thanks to both of you for being with us. really appreciate that. and we just talked about it

a second ago. you are not going to want to miss this week's second and final debate, the last one before the election between president trump and joe biden. nbc white house correspondent and "weekend today" anchor kristen welker will be the moderator. watch chuck's predebate coverage on nbc news now at 7:30 eastern. you can also catch brian, rachel, joy and nicolle on msnbc, that will start at 8:00. ahead, twitter blocks a tweet from one of trump administration's top coronavirus advisors because of misinformation about the coronavirus. up at 2:00am again?

tonight, try pure zzzs all night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep. understanding how to talk to your doctor about treatment options is key.

today, we are redefining how we do things. we find new ways of speaking, so you're never out of touch. it's seeing someone's face that comforts us, no matter where. when those around us know us, they can show us just how much they care. the first steps of checking in, the smallest moments can end up being everything. there's resources that can inform us, and that spark can make a difference. when we use it to improve things, then that change can last within us. when we understand what's possible, we won't settle for less. the best thing we can be is striving to be at our best. managing heart failure starts now with understanding. call today or go online to understandhf.com for a free hf handbook.

globally there are now more than 40 million confirmed coronavirus cases, more than 8 million of those are right here in the united states where we are headed to what may be a third peak, at least 38 states now and the district of columbia are seeing increases in cases, hospitalizations are on the rise across the country and here are the facts, over the weekend twitter removed a post from white house coronavirus adviser dr. scott atlas that claimed that masks are not effective in curbing the spread of the virus. atlas who has no background in epidemiology is reportedly at odds with other, perts within the administration. president trump called fauci a, quote, disaster today in a call

with campaign aides, this after dr. fauci told "60 minutes" he is, quote, not surprised that president trump contracted coronavirus after the white house event for supreme court nominee amy coney barrett. house speaker nancy pelosi says a deal for coronavirus relief needs to be reached by tomorrow for it to be done before the election. pelosi is schedule to talk with treasury secretary steven mnuchin today though it is unclear if house democrats and white house officials and senate republicans can get on the same page z page. we are going to get to capitol hill developments in a moment but i'm joined by dr. badila an infectious disease physician and msnbc medical contributor. thank you for joining us. appreciate it. i wanted to ask you about something that i heard yesterday from dr. michael osterholm, an epidemiologist from the university of minnesota. we've talked to him a lot and he was on "meet the press" yesterday.

he said he thinks in his view the next six months or so are going to mark the darkest days for this country in terms of its battle with the coronavirus. certainly caught my attention because i think back to the earliest days, i think back to march and april and all the numbers and reports coming particularly out of new york city and imagine something being even darker than that. is it an assessment that you share? >> good afternoon, steve. it's a fear i share and unfortunately it might be a reality coming true faster than we would want it to. just a blink of an eye we wept from end of august with cases in 20,000, 30,000 to now almost 70,000 before the end of last weekend and hospitalizations are up and parts determined by the biology of the virus, as it gets colder it's easier to transmit this disease, we're all moving indoors but there are aspects very much in our hands and that's why i don't say with

certainty as dr. osterholm says, i do unfortunately see the cases continue to go up and hospitalizations go up because there's a widespread pandemic fatigue. people are exhausted. the impact of this, you know, has been immense to everybody. nobody is left untouched. but the virus is still here. as the author said, the reality is when you ignore it does not go away and the virus is a biological reality which is why the lead in with dr. atlas and spreading misinformation is more precarious at this time because it's basically chipping away at the little reserve we have left and potentially spreading misinformation that could increases the cases and hospitalizations. >> if the cases, the hospitalizations do continue to rise and if some of these fears you're describing are realized here, how -- are we better prepared and if so how much are we better prepared from a

medical standpoint? we're not at a vaccine right now. but to treat cases, to improve outcomes short of a vaccine, how substantial is that improvement versus the early days of this? >> steve, i think you and i have talked about this before and one thing i regretted last time not saying is that hospitalizations themselves are a lot, we've lost the game when people get hospitalized because that has such a huge impact on people's physiological reserve and their ability to get back to work and we know just getting the infection, a study last week now from the uk that showed that 70% of the people who survived this had some sort of evidence of organ damage four months out, that includes young people not with as many comorbidities or conditions, showing about four months out. just the infections and hospitalizations themselves are a failure. but we have been able to improve the way we take care of this patient. we're hoping the mortality will go down. the thing that will fail us is

that as opposed to when we had targeted northeast, the south, now the met, what we're seeing is generalized increase in cases and if this becomes a nationalized pandemic, this public health resources becomes strapped because they're being pulled in all these different directions, right, previously if you had a focused outbreak you could send traveling health care workers to that area, but if every place requires those health care workers and resources be we may fall short an that's the fear. >> all right. doctor, thank you as always. appreciate that. >> thank you. coming up, trump era immigration policies head to the supreme court and voters in battleground arizona are sounding off. ground arizona are sounding off

the unfair money bail system. he, accused of rape. while he, accused of stealing $5. the stanford rapist could afford bail; got out the same day. the senior citizen could not; forced to wait in jail nearly a year. voting yes on prop 25 ends this failed system, replacing it with one based on public safety. because the size of your wallet shouldn't determine whether or not you're in jail. vote yes on prop 25 to end money bail. proposition 16 takes on discrimination. some women make as little as 42% of what a man makes. voting yes on prop 16 helps us fix that. it's supported by leaders like kamala harris and opposed by those who have always opposed equality. we either fall from grace or we rise.

together. proposition 16 provides equal opportunities, levelling the playing field for all of us. vote yes on prop 16. uber and lyft are like every big guy i've ever brought down. prop 22 doesn't "help" their drivers-- it denies them benefits. 22 doesn't help women. it actually weakens sexual harassment laws, which are meant to protect them. uber and lyft aren't even required to investigate sexual harassment claims. i agree with the la times: no on 22. uber and lyft want all the power. so, show them the real power is you. vote no on prop 22. welcome back. donald trump made immigration the cornerstone of his 2016 campaign and today we learn that the supreme court will rule on two of his administration's most

controversial immigration policies. the court announced it will hear a case concerning the white house's use of a disputed military funds to pay for a portion of the border wall and another case challenging the administration's remain in mexico policy for those seeking asylum in the u.s. lower courts ruled against the trump administration in both cases but the high court will not issue a decision on either one until some time next year. while immigration has not been as much of a focus in the 2020 campaign, it is an important issue for many voters, especially in border states like arizona where the president is campaigning today. our own ali velshi is back with us from tucson. ali, this obviously we say it was a big issue in 2016. still very much a prominent one now, but where you are, perhaps more fresh on voters minds being a border state. what are you hearing down there? >> so you know every week i've been out if a different swing state talking to voters, 50 miles from the border. on saturday i was on the border

in a place in arizona about just due south/southwest of where we are right now and i spoke to six voters, a diverse crowd, one a woman who had come to america as an undocumented immigrant, two were members of an indigenous nation nearby, two were ranchers. it was a great conversation, but you can't believe people sharing the same amount of land can have such different views. i wasn't planning for most of the conversation to be about immigration but in the end it was. listen to some of what they told me. >> first of all, i would say that i feel very proud to be a naturalized citizen. i worked hard for my naturalization and my family worked hard for the naturalization. i would even say that the drive here was a very triggering experience because even know i'm a naturalized citizen now, the fear of border patrol, of family

separation, never leaves your body. just out here, i saw on the way over here i saw a family being detained. a man was carrying a child. >> just here as you were coming to this discussion? >> as i was coming to this discussion. i feel very vulnerable because no matter how many years have passed, the fear of witnessing that is still in your body. this wall, sorry, this wall is a representation of hate. this wall is a representation of everything that divides us. i don't think about the

immigration issue. i feel the immigration issue. >> jim, when you're talking about the things that you struggle with legitimately on your property with a cattle fence people can go underneath and drug dealers, i imagine be you're not thinking of gracia, that's not where your fear lies? >> that is true. we, as a nation, need immigrants and i love immigrants. the problem is, is we're a nation of rule of law and it's against our laws for people just to decide to come into the united states. we've had people coming from mexico, from guatemala, honduras, come to our front yard. i have water for them, i have my truck always has ten gallons of water. we meet them. but this is very rare. in 2008, that traffic stopped

and the drug cartels took over. the 200 trails coming through my ranch. what's coming through now aren't just good people trying to get into the united states. it's drug packers. drug packers coming in to the united states to poison our people. we seldom ever see a woman or a child. in fact, i haven't seen up with in the last four or five years. >> it's a broken immigration system because it takes years for you to actually do it through the legal process. it took me 13 years to become a naturalized citizen. i took me six years to fight my father's deportation even though he had no criminal record. our immigration system is broken because the system wasn't meant to be welcoming. the system was meant to be a deterrent. however, we still benefit from a system that allows for free trade of goods and services but

doesn't allow for like the free movement of people back and forth. >> steve, just so you know, the wall where we were, we were right in front of it, a few hundred yards in one direction was the end of the wall, and more is being recup instructed. some is replacing the cattle fencing that you could go underneath or on top of. some of it is replacing 13 foot fence that was there. while very little new fence -- new wall has been constructed by donald trump what they're missing is a lot of existing wall has been replaced. there's a lot of wall on the southern boarder of the united states and as you mentioned that is under review by the supreme court because the money was redistricted from the department of defense for that purpose. immigration for a topic alive and well in this discussion in this election in arizona. >> certainly see that in that clip. that's a fascinating, ali, to get the different perspectives and voices, sitting down

together and sharing, fascinating to watch and to listen to it. appreciate that. i know you're sticking around. we're going to get more on the picture in arizona. going to talk to a former long-time aide to john mccain after this. when i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. the support we've had over the last few months has been amazing. it's not just a work environment. everyone here is family. if you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. we thought for sure that we were done. and this town said: not today. ♪

♪and if we win, we get to tell you and this town said: not today. how liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need. isn't that what you just did? service! ♪ stand back, i'm gonna show ya ♪ ♪ how doug and limu roll, ya ♪ ♪ you know you got to live it ♪ ♪ if you wanna wi... [ music stops ] time out! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ welcome back. as we mentioned earlier, president trump is on his way to arizona. that's a state that no democrat

has won since bill clinton in 1996, but a state that john mccain represented on capitol hill for more than 35 years is far more purple than it is red so far in the polling this year. president trump trailing joe biden in most recent polls including monmouth's which biden there in recent years. if you look downright now. appointed to fill that seat by ten points according to monmouth. with me now is the former senior advisor to john mccain. john mccain obviously synonymous with modern arizona politics, the state that he fist ran in, the state that he first won office in in arizona. one of the most conservative states in the country, what is arizona today. how would you describe it.

>> the economy, a republican stronghold, all of the time that i worked for john mccain and david axelrod said it was one giant suburb and it is trending more independent than purple. and now in the last in 2018 in the midterms, they lost the election, 60 pakistan of all high school seniors sometimes they forget that. that is affecting it's politics. >> i know ali has a few questions there, go ahead.

>> you and i had a bit of a conversation yesterday. you were talking about changing demographics. there is a good conservative christian population and a significant minority of mor mans that would have been solidly there for the last many decades. there was a bit of a shift there. >> well, yeah, he is not, he does better with evangelicals than he deserves to because of his own personal abouts, but he doesn't do very well with mor m mormans. they take a dim view of his offensive remarks about senator machinery. jeff flake, again, also a

morman. quite out spoken to president trump's behavior and personal style. but he has a lot of friends out there, too. so it is definitely a softened vote for him. >> thanks, mark, steep, back to you. >> i want to pick up a conversation that we were having with you here on the show. he said something that i thought was interesting act the longer term direction of the republican party. and just the idea that donald trump will not be, presumably leaving the office any time soon. he remains president, but if he is defeated, there is a sort of tradition of the president leaving office and then becoming very quiet and reseeding from the headlines, and you didn't

see much from george w. bush in 2009. didn't see a lot from barack obama in 2017. there is no expectation or reason to expect that a form er president will abide by that. what does it mean if trump will lose in a few weeks. what about a republican party trying to move on. can they move on in any way or can they remain in the party for the foreseeable future. >> knock on wood he does lose. they can't move on unless he does. it was never about politics or ideology. it has always been about trump for trump. and the attention that he craves with an insatiable appetite. i think it will take us a few cycles. the bigger the repudiation, the more the republicans.

promoting a brand of trump, it will be nativist. antiimmigrant, and america first type stuff and then it will be an off of a more conservative brand. and i think it will take a few election cycles or more. the fact remains that right now the republican party proceeds. so something has to change and what we have been doing the last four years will guarantee our extension. >> we know what polls are saying right now in terms of joe biden being ahead nationally. >> how do you look at the final

weeks of the campaign. >> you know, like everybody else i'm a little traumatized from 2016. my -- i look at every poll with suspicion. he is in much better shape than clinton was. trump seems to be, every time he campaigns he seems to exacerbate and doubting everybody else. and biden's campaign contradicts of the characterthey're trying to paint. he has two huge problems with two demographics. he has problems with suburban women and seniors. everything he does seems to exacerbate those doubts with seniors. the big rallies, the

dismissiveness of covid, the masklessness, all of that stuff is making his problem worse. hopefully he'll keep it up for another couple weeks and we can begin the long and difficult process of repairing this nation and rebuilding the republican party from the rubble that donald trump left in it's wake. >> mark, thank you for taking a few minutes. ali velshi, thank you for being part of the show today. chuck will be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh.

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

my gums are irritated. i don't have to worry about that, do i? harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. crest gum detoxify works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. crest.

good afternoon, it is 11:00 a.m. out west, 2:00 p.m. in the east. we are two mondays from the vote. the president is running against the