if it's tuesday, behind in the polls with two weeks to go, president trump doubles down on campaigning angry. calling for biden to be thrown into jail and pressing bill barr to take legal action against his political rival. president trump is running ot of time to change the trajectory of this race. millions of americans have already voted. and in america's most important swing state, the opening day numbers for florida's in-person early voting are unlike anything we've ever seen before. plus, as cases surge, negotiators scramble to meet

today's latest imaginary deadline for a deal with democrats on a massive financial rescue package. steny hoyer joins us in a few minutes to tell us if there's any green chutes. ♪ welcome to tuesday. it's meet the press daily. i'm chuck todd. the president is desperate for something to help him close the gap with joe biden. his campaign is signaling they see thursday night's debate as maybe their last real chance to shake up this race. right now the president and his campaign are focusing a lot of their fire on that debate with angry letters, fiery statements and public complaints falsely claiming the nonpartisan debate commission is trying to rig it against them. but still insisting the president will show up. they care about this debate. and ahead of the debate, the president appears to be basically, well, trying to manufacture an october surprise

that he could potentially use thursday night. he's been hyping this unverified, unsubstantiated "new york post" report about hunter biden and his father which they say has all the hallmarks of a russian intelligence operation. in an interview with fox news, he again pressed for his own attorney general bill barr to get involved. >> 11 house republicans have sent a letter. they said the following. we request the department of justice immediately appoint an independent unbiased special counsel to investigate these issues that have been raised, as well as any corresponding legal or ethical issues that may be uncovered from the former vice president's 47 years in public office. will you be doing that? >> we've got to get the attorney general to act. we've got to act. and he's got to act fast. he's got to appoint somebody. this is major corruption. and this has to be known about before the election. and by the way, we're doing very well. we're going to win the election. we're doing very well. >> has to be known before the

election. you could almost hear the president's desperation. but the reality is the president's re-election campaign is in a dire situation. he's latched on to a closing message that echoes his 2016 campaign. lock them up. >> i think today he's staying in the basement to talk to his lawyers. they caught him cold. he should be in jail. he's a criminal, and he should be in jail. >> 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, i don't know what's going on. >> campaign strategy seems to be to call biden a criminal. why is that? >> he is a criminal. he's a criminal. he got caught. read his laptop and you know who is a criminal? you're a criminal for not reporting it. you are a criminal for not reporting it. let me tell you something. joe biden is a criminal and he's been a criminal for a long time.

and you're a criminal in the media for not reporting it. >> well, joining me from outside the white house is nbc's carol lee. mariana sotomayor is covering the biden campaign. shaquille brewster is in milwaukee where early voting is now open for wisconsin voters. carol lee, i want to start with the president's -- that wasn't the only sort of questionable, frankly, i'm going to use -- i'll use the word unhinged comments just now there. those are so beyond the bounds of normalcy, it's hard to put them in proper context anymore. but the president has so bulldozed over these lines. but it was what he said about the virus yesterday that i think was a thousand times more damaging considering where his head is on the virus. let me play his attacks on the pandemic and fauci. >> the pandemic. they are getting tired of the pandemic, aren't they? getting tired of the pandemic. you turn on cnn. that's all they cover.

covid, covid, pandemic, covid, covid. you know why they are trying to talk everybody out of voting. >> people are tired of hearing fauci and all these idiots, these people. these people that have got ten wrong. fauci is a nice guy. he's been here for 500 years. every time he goes on television, there's always a bomb. but there is a bigger bomb if you fire him. but fauci's a disaster. >> those last comments were designed for the president. those were to his campaign staff, i assume the call was to fire up his campaign staff. not demoralize them. but my word, the president looks like he's lost. like the cranky, ah, biden is a criminal. fauci is terrible. it's what losers sound like. >> it's very much an angry sort of message. and the president said that himself yesterday before he sort of corrected himself. he said i'm running angry. then i'm running happy, i'm running content. that's not at all what he sounds

like. what it reminded me, listening to him talk about joe biden like that is that's what he was doing at this time four years ago with hillary clinton. and he felt like it worked for him. joe biden's different. people know him better and there are people around the president who think it's not a good idea for him to be pushing so much on that line to try to define joe biden two weeks before the election. people -- everyone has known for 50 years in the country as someone who is corrupt. they want to focus on joe biden would raise your taxes for instance. the president is doing a little bit less of that. in terms of being tired of the pandemic, the one person tired of the pandemic is president trump. he's been tired of the pandemic for many months now. and we're seeing what we, you know, has been a slow roll with his tensions with fauci. used to be behind the scenes. then he'd say things publicly and now he's going fully out in the open and mariana knows more about this than i do. but the biden campaign sees that as a gift saying we'll listen to dr. fauci, the experts, and

people are tired of the pandemic. we have to do something about it so we can move on from that. the president is saying he's tired of it. he's not coming with the answers and that's what you see his critics seizing upon, chuck. >> so carol, is this -- is this what constitutes his debate prep? >> yeah. he's not -- he said himself, he's not really preparing. there's preparations in the sense that the president has some attacks that he wants to launch. obviously, he really wants to bring up the hunter biden issue that he very clearly said is his own, you know, trying to push his own october surprise. he wants to raise that. he wants to raise things like antifa, things we've seen before. to say he's preparing, he's preparing to inject topics and zingers into the debate he feels aren't already being asked about. but he's not doing the traditional prep. his prep are these rallies and sparring you've seen him do with the press. >> so basically going on fox and

friends is probably the most debate prep he did so far it appears anyway. carol lee at the white house. let me move over to mariana. and mariana, speaking of debate prep. joe biden has already called a lid today. tell us a little bit about what they are putting in to debate prep? certainly looks like they have spent a lot of time preparing for this final debate. >> that's right, chuck. as you heard carol say, there's a difference between the untraditional and traditional differences between what the trump campaign is doing and the biden campaign has for a long time trying to be on that traditional path. for him, even in the primaries, it's customary to just take a couple of days before a debate to really get down, drill down and also hold these mock debates in wilmington to really try and prepare against his number one opponent right now. as you remember in that first presidential debate, you saw biden really trying to focus and

trying to deliver a message directly to the american people. and that is something that he is definitely going to try and practice again as we head into this second and final debate. and something that you should also note is even though he's had these couple days to be down, we've seen a number of surrogates from celebrities like the avengers cast holding virtual fundraisers tonight to even, you know, dr. biden stumping down in michigan. of course, you know, tomorrow, president barack obama in philly. >> well, i want to bring that out. i want to talk about the former president here because all of a sudden, he is saturating the air waves in senate races. i want to play a mash up of a whole bunch of places that barack obama is now doing camera ads and endorsement ads for. take a look. >> in maine, you've got a big responsibility this year. not only are you choosing who represents you in washington. you could also determine which

party controls the senate. that's why i'm proud to endorse sarah gideon. hey, south carolina if you want a senator who will fight for criminal justice reform, lower college costs and makehealth care affordable, you've got to vote for jaime harrison. we've got to elect folks who will get to work for people like you. that's why i'm supporting reverend rafael warnok in the special election for senate. gary peters is someone i trust to protect it. gary understands what our legacy means for your families. >> and, yes, it does appear the former president was wearing the same outfit in all of those ads which probably means he taped most of them on the same day. mariana, we're going to see former president obama on the trail. is he also the closer on this presidential race? >> in some ways, yes. just seeing him come out and endorse these candidates in the senate race. we've talked about it time and

time again. do endorsements really matter? we don't have the metrics yet to know just how obama's influence has affected these senate races. but look at the biden campaign. what they have told me is that barack obama continues to be the most reliable and the biggest surrogate for them. all of the emails that he has sent out and text messages on behalf of the campaign are actually the most grossing ones to raise the most money. that's important especially in all of these down ballot races, some of which have already been able to raise an astronomical amount of money. so obama's influence absolutely will be making a difference in these last couple days left until election day, chuck. >> mar anna sotomayor. thanks very much. both to carol and mariana for getting us started on the campaign. 14 days to go. early in-person voting is under way in florida. a record number of people are going to the polls. these are the totals from florida election officials. as of about an hour ago.

more than 360,000 people cast in-person ballots yesterday alone. for comparison back in 2016, 290,000 according to politico. and more democrats appear to be voting in person early, which is to be expected. more republicans are expected to vote closer to election day. but look for more republican numbers. this will be a bit more even in the early in-person. at the end of the day hard to draw firm conclusions other than they are extraordinarily big both in-person and in the mail. another one of those outliers, wisconsin, is preparing for a large turnout as early voting gets under way today. that's where shaq brewster is in milwaukee. so shaq, what kind of lines are you seeing? i know what we've seen in north carolina in their first day, in georgia, in florida on their first day. i imagine the scene is similar in milwaukee. >> that's right, chuck. this is fitting that pattern. we saw people lining up perfect polls even opened.

and you still see some of the lines behind me. there's a line of cars, a line of people. people can go and vote from the safety of their own car here in wisconsin. what you are hearing from people is what's driving them to the polls is almost reflects what you heard from president trump when he said people are tired of the coronavirus. people are tired of the effects of the coronavirus. the fact that schools are closed. the fact that there's that surge going on, not only in milwaukee but across the state of wisconsin and the midwest region at large. one voter said, hey, this really put in perspective to me. i know people who died from the virus and i'm here going to vote right now. i'm scared to go in. or i have some fear that i'm going in. you know, one thing more impressive than the lines are the number of people who have voted already in this state. the wisconsin elections commission says, as of this morning, more than 915,000 people have already cast a ballot before these doors even opened. i spoke to the mayor of milwaukee who said this is encouraging for him because he

wants to spread out the people coming to vote. he wants people to use their vote by mail. if they want to come and vote in puni person they can do that at one of the 14 sites across the city. the idea is avoiding that chaos we saw during the april primary where you had all those people inside the polling location in the middle of this pandemic. chuck? >> and the real fear, shaq, is that we're peaking at cases and election day is coming at the same time. that's not -- those aren't two lines we want to see cross unfortunately. shaq on the ground in milwaukee, as always, sir, thank you. now let's take a look at a different set of numbers. new national poll from "the new york times" and sienna college has joe biden up nine points over president trump adding another national poll to a pile that had biden basically with that near double-digit lead. joining me to look at the overall state of the race, cook political report's dave wasserman. here's a question that i'm sure you've gotten because i've

gotten it from my internal colleagues. and that is this. if the national polls are consistently showing 9 to 12 points, and right now that appears to be among the national polls that we like here, right? how are florida and north carolina one point? is there really a nine-point difference these days between these sunbelt states and the national number? what do you say when you're asked that question? >> yeah, it's a good one, chuck. the picture i think overall is very clear because we're getting hundreds of polls at the district level that confirm the parents we're seeing in these national live interview surveys where joe biden is overperforming hillary clinton's margins from 2016. anywhere from 8 to 10 points in most districts inspect some districts that are heavily suburban it's more than tin poi 10. in the case of florida, i do

think some of the shift in the cuban vote towards trump explains why that hasn't moved as rapidly toward democrats. and people tend to forget that north carolina is still quite a rural and small town state. less of the vote there is cast in major metros than in georgia or texas or arizona. and so it's lots of a clear-cut sunbelt state than some others. but the real key for biden is that none of those states, florida, north carolina, georgia, texas, none of those are must wins for biden. they're must win forward trus f. arizona, wisconsin, pennsylvania, michigan still look pretty good for biden. >> you know, what would you say to those? is there -- is it possible that the national number simply that the national gap actually has grown and that there is so much more strength in the blue states that we might see? because i sit here and, look, in

2012, the national number was four points. florida was a point. in 2016, the national number was two points. florida was a point. right? in 2018, you could argue the generic ballot had it about seven and the florida senate race was a point. you get where i'm going here. what's moving? >> yeah, well, there usually is some reversion to the mean in florida and democrats, after 2016, have a hard time trusting numbers that show them in good position in north carolina. when you stack up the nature of polling error over the course of the last two cycles, it's really interesting because almost without exception, polls have undershot democratic performance in the southwest. they've overshot it by -- to varying degrees in the midwest. but the southeast has been a mixed bag. polls have generally been on target in georgia. they've undershot republicans in florida and a little bit in

north carolina, too. >> that -- if you were to make me guess a pattern there, that is one thing i would say. let me take it -- let me ask it this way. of all the major battleground states you and i care about, what's the state you think that's been polled the least that makes you the most nervous? >> that's a great question. look, we've had a lot of polling from these battleground states. i do think in wisconsin and pennsylvania, there is potential for trump to activate noncollege white voters to a degree that is higher than '16. we've seen favorable registration trends for republicans in pennsylvania and florida and north carolina. all that said, trump is not winning noncollege whites by the same margins he did in 2016. and that's pretty clear down to the district level. and he needs to get closer to the '16 numbers to have a shot

at those states. >> let me ask you one final question this way. is this political environment closer to 2018 or 2016? >> it might be closer in many ways to 2008 when we saw a seven-point margin in the presidential race and democrats added house seats on top of flipping the house two years prior. that seems to be a possibility this time around. but, look, we're just headed for massive turnout. and, you know, far above what we saw in '08 and '18. so that could potentially have upside for democrats in sunbelt states and some upsides for trump in rust belt states. >> you know, i know this is a cop out for people like you and i, but that is something about higher turnout. when turnout blows through any projections that people like us deal with in historial context, then you know what? it truly is anything can happen. when turnout blows the doors

off. so that is something to think about up and down the ballot. >> 160 million perhaps. >> you're at 160? i have a bet at 150 and i'm feeling good. and you're going 160? not quite there yet. >> maybe. that's my higher range, yeah. >> that's your higher range. all right. if it gets to 160, i'm buying you dinner. >> all right. thank you. don't miss the debate. the final face-off between president trump and joe biden. my colleague kristen welker will moderate. we'll bring you live predebate coverage on nbc news now at 7:00 p.m. that's pre-predebate coverage. then predebate coverage on nbc news and then catch brian, rachel, joy and nicolle at 8:00. we have you covered. the growing fears about a coronavirus peak. the latest numbers and the battle to control the spread in the hard-hit midwest. they've lost a lot, but

wildfire victims in california are not going to lose the opportunity to vote. we'll show you an innovative way the state is trying to bring a polling place to them. among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend.

there's no question it's something ythey customize yours lcar insurance. so you only pay for what you need. wow. that will save me lots of money. this game's boring. only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.

welcome back. more than 221,000 people and counting have died from the coronavirus here in the united states as alls appear to show us heading toward a third peak. the u.s. recorded more than 65,000 new coronavirus cases in at least 40 states are seeing increases. hospitalizations are trending up again. their highest since early august. some states seeing their highest all-time. as we've been saying, the midwest is being hit the hardest. the region hit another record high number of cases yesterday. north dakota and south dakota reporting more case ps per capi than any other states in the union. north dakota is one of the only states that's conducted more covid tests than the state's population. that's the one piece of, i

guess, green shoots there. josh lederman is in bismarck, north dakota. josh, what have you learned about the state's response and the struggles they've had? >> chuck, here in north dakota, they are testing a lot. at this event center we watched as 500 cars pulled through in about an hour and a half. they all got covid tests. the national guard and local officials on hand here. the people drove out without ever getting out of their car. they'll get their results in about 48 hours or so. but despite the fact they are doing all of this testing, you can't test your way out of a pandemic. we saw that with the situation at the white house and what happened with the outbreak there. here in north dakota, they are also doing aggressive contact tracing. the state was actually on the cutting edge as far as having apps to be able to use to do contact tracing but there's been some resistance from some of the population to being tracked in that way. and the numbers here just continue to show how the

situation is not under control. we just got the latest numbers from the health department here. of all the tests that were done yesterday in north dakota, chuck, the positivity rate was 19.7%. that means that 1 out of every 5 people here who was tested yesterday tested positive for covid-19. >> that's just alarming, josh. it's just, i mean, in fact, states get into -- start thinking about new lockdown measures when it hits 5%. at least some of the states in the northeast. so 20% is just astonishing. the one missing ingredient in both dakotas has been masks. we know there's been a resistance -- look. i'm still moved by the governor of north dakota breaking down a bit in how politicized masks are. they are still not -- how much mask wearing did you see? >> i got to tell you, chuck. very little. even when you go into stores here where the stores have taken

it upon themselves to say come into the store. you have to wear a mask. you go inside and mask usage is at maybe 30%. a lot of people here, it's just not something that they really want to do. the state doesn't want to impose it statewide but just in the last 24 hours, we're starting to see communities take it upon themselves. last night fargo, the largest city here, said that they are putting in place a mask mandate effective immediately but, of course, there will be no penalties under that mandate if you violate it. >> josh lederman on the ground, getting a firsthand look at the north dakota situation. they've been leading the nation per capita on this front. thanks very much. joining me is someone whose name has been invoked a lot in the last two days since i spoke with him on "meet the press" on sunday. dr. michael osterholm. i want to just start. you just heard that report from north dakota. if there is just the fact that it's -- it takes 48 hours to get

the results of testing. it's a population resistant to contact tracing. no mask mandates. this is six months after the pandemic, six months after every warning from people like you who said this is -- we're going to have to do certain measures. when you hear a story like that, do you just throw up your hands and say, we're losing? >> you know, failure is not an option here so we have to keep trying. what we're talking about are human lives. we're not just talking about how many tests are positive or who gets tested. we're talking about human lives. we have to keep going. the challenge is that there are a number of states out there that are just like north dakota. and it's just a matter of time over the course of the next two to four weeks before we see similar kinds of on the ground settings as you're seeing in north dakota. that's what has us so worried about going into the next three to four months. >> we just put up a graphic. i don't know how much you get to see of the graphics we put up.

every region in all four regions of this country, the curve is pointing upward. the midwest is the worst but everybody is pointing upward, including the northeast, including the west where we know there have been more -- a bit more structure. let me ask you this question. yesterday we just found out that tsa did more than a million people went through tsa yesterday on airplanes. first time that happened since mid-march. we have a lot of school systems that have decided to go, start opening up. and it seems as if we're trying to -- we have the big ten going to start playing football next week. none of this seems to make sense when you look at the trajectory of the virus. i get the fatigue aspect of this. but we are just about to make a bad situation worse? >> you know, i would actually maybe add a little bit of enlightenment and say we're going to make a bad situation disastrous. i know that sounds like strong language but people have to wake up and understand what's coming.

you know, as i said on your show on sunday, the darkest days of this pandemic are just in front of us. and we have a choice. we can make a difference. if we don't distance ourselves from other people, if we, in fact, insist on going home for the holidays, if we have our weddings and funerals and large events like that, if we continue to go to bars and restaurants, if we do all those things, i promise you, we are going to see a lot of transmission. what's really concerning right now, we're beginning to see more and more states where the actual percentage of patients who are infected with this virus have no idea where they picked it up. more than 50% of the population says i don't know where i got it, which means it is so widespread out there. chuck, that's what we have coming down the pike. everything so far has unfortunately been a warm-up to where we're going. >> well, the dire warning, i guess it makes you feel a bit --

i'll be honest. your dire warnings make us feel helpless. we're just at the mercy of just a poor government response and it's just trickled down? >> you know, we are at the mercy in some ways but on the other hand, we are going to get a lot better at this. the challenge is, keep trying to get better before those of us who lose loved ones then have to wake up and say, wow, i better be more careful. i better ask myself, what am i doing to put myself at risk? do i want to spend all that time in a bar in an evening? do i want to go to a wedding with 300 people in an indoor environment and go to a dance at night at the wedding? do i want to do those things? and you know, we will get there eventually as we've had this discussion about herd immunity. this concept of how many people will get infected. whether we get through through disease or vaccine, we'll get there, 50% to 60% positives. the challenge is we'd like to wait until we get to the vaccine. we have to try to ask people, we're not asking you to hold out

forever. this sour covid year. give us until next spring when we can, in fact, at that point, really make a difference. >> i was going to say three more months. it sounds like you're saying six more months is what you are really asking americans for at this point in an ideal setting. >> i'm saying three months, i think, before you're going to see prevention kick in. remember what happened in the summer. we had georgia, florida, texas and california. they were on fire. why did the fire go away? because people were scared at that point when they saw their intensive care units overrun. we'll have a similar reaction here. i think that's probably going to be three or four months, though, right into the holidays. but what we will do is, by next spring, start to have vaccine. that's what we need to do is be able to vaccinate as many americans, for that matter, people all around the world and try to deal with that protection that way. don't risk having to get infected and then try to get your protection. that's the potential deadly

outcome. >> dr. michael osterholm of the university of minnesota, appreciate you coming on with your straight talk as always. >> thanks, chuck. you heard that. we may be headed to a disaster with all of these seemingly contradictory decisions we're about to make as a society as we open up as curves go up. let's think about this, foilks. a whole lot is at stake down the ballot. it could mean a whole lot when it comes to redistricting. that's next. g. that's next. ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

essential for sewing, but maybe not needles. for people with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz. the first and only pill of its kind that treats moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or moderate to severe ulcerative colitis when other medicines have not helped enough. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. needles. fine for some. but for you, there's a pill that may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about the pill first prescribed for ra more than seven years ago. xeljanz. an "unjection™".

for next year's coverage?s about medicare options of course you do. we all do. i'm meredith vieira and i'm in the same camp. the medicare annual election deadline is just ahead and now is our chance to check out what's changed. i want to talk to you about myhealthpolicy, a great resource if you're new to medicare or if you're already covered. are there any new medicare advantage plans? i'm feeling overwhelmed. yes, go to myhealthpolicy.com to review the various options, for example, $0 premium plans. keep in mind there are changes every year, so it's really important to be aware of what's different now. i have medicare advantage now. can i switch to another plan? yes, compare. if you find coverage you like better, you can switch plans easily. for instance, maybe you want prescription drug coverage or an expanded network. now's your chance to change. all these medicare options are too confusing.

can i talk to a real person? yes, talk with a licensed insurance agent on the phone or meet face-to-face with someone in your community. we all want to feel confident we're making the right choices about our medicare coverage, so don't be afraid to ask questions to get the answers you need. start here, at myhealthpolicy.com. (soft music) ♪ i will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night it's true, i will rescue you oh, i will rescue you

welcome back. there is a lot more than just control of the white house and congress on the line two weeks from now. 86 legislative chambers in 44 states are also up for grabs. guess what? it's census year. you know what that means. redistricting is on the line. joe biden leading or in contention in many states currently controlled by republicans means democrats see an opportunity to give themselves an edge for the first time arguably since 1990 in congressional races in drawing congressional maps for the next deca decade. in texas they need to flip nine seats. that's a tall order but actually more doable than you might think in texas. in florida, they need to flip four seats to win back the state september for the first time since 1994. but districts are even bigger than congressional districts. in arizona, democrats need to flip two seats to control the house for the first time since

1966. in north dakota, democrats can win control by flipping five senate seats and six house seats. a split might be a better shot there. we'll see. that's where we find msnbc's chris jansing. she's in raleigh, north carolina, looking at the fight to flip that statehouse. chris, what do you got? >> yeah, what a fight it is. this is really ground zero, right, for gerrymandering, all those court battles we've seen. the net result of that is suddenly a lot of voters get it, particularly democratic voters who see this as a question of fairness. and so they are pouring tons of money into legislative races that were basically done on a shoestring in the past. check it out. some of the most important races in november feature candidates you've probably never heard of. >> like frances jackson. a north carolina teacher and church volunteer challenging an incumbent republican state

assemblyman. >> how much money have you raised? >> we have raised over half a million dollars. >> half a million for a seat that pays how much? >> $14,000 a year. >> democrats are flooding key legislative races with cash. $111 million just through september. a slew of grassroots funded groups leading a fight to regain control of house and senate chambers. why? gerrymandering. the act of manipulating district boundaries to give one party the advantage which republicans did after big wins in 2010. judges compared the drawing of maryland's 3rd congressional district to blood spatter at a crime scene. and ohio's fourth nicknamed the duck crosses four counties to pump up the number of republican voters. malorie works with one of the groups supporting candidates like jackson. >> you have a bunch of safe seats. nobody has to compete for our votes and a bunch of lazy representatives who don't want to represent us because no one is going to challenge them and they'll not lose.

>> gerrymandering is so egregious in north carolina, the thoirsically black alma matter is split into two republican districts. >> they were choosing their voters instead of the voters selecting their leaders. >> reporter: map manipulation. >> i cannot believe that people have been so kind to contribute to my race. they don't even know who i am, but they know the importance of the election. >> so what are they doing with all that money? one thing is in a time of covid, chuck, a lot of these democrats, most of them, are not going door to door. so frances jackson has tv ads on. you can turn on the tv in fayetteville and get a trump ad and a cal cunningham and a frances jackson ad. and here, the legislature decides those legislative boundaries and congressional boundaries but unlike other states where that happens, the governor does not have veto power so the stakes, chuck, are very, very high. >> it is. i swear to this, chris jansing. i don't have the metrics, but i

would bet more television ads for state legislative races this year than in any campaign ever. i think that's an easy -- >> i will take that bet. 100%. >> yeah. no doubt. chris jansing on the ground in north carolina, thank you. before we go to break, we have a quick clarification on a graphic that we aired earlier. on florida's early in-person vote totals. i said more democrats have voted early in person according to florida officials but we had a typo on the graphic that incorrectly showed more republicans had voted early and in person. the corrected version is up now. my words were correct. our graphic was misleading and so we are correcting it. as you can see, more democrats have voted early in person according to the secretary of state site in florida but, obviously, it's a tight margin either way. we'll be right back with house majority leader steny hoyer. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ (boy reading) ♪ find the nonpartisan facts behind the real stories at usafacts.org ♪ i think you mean the new alexa. it's a buick. it's an alexa. check it out. alexa, turn on the outdoor lights. ok. that's cool, but i'm pretty sure it's a buick.

clearly an alexa. alexa, get directions to the 8-18 grill. getting directions. it's a buick. the first-ever encore gx, available with alexa built-in. nice buick. it's an alexa. now get nearly 3,300 purchase cash on the 2020 encore gx. ask: alexa, tell me about buick suv's who'sgovernor gavin newsom. the governor says prop 15 is, "fair, phased-in, and long overdue reform", that "will exempt small businesses and residential property owners." join governor newsom. vote yes on 15.

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. is you. who's supkamala harris.5? harris says, "a corporate tax loophole has allowed billions to be drained from our public schools and local communities. no more. i'm proud to support prop 15." vote yes. schools and communities first is responsible for the content of this ad. i want to do it even bigger than the democrats.

not every republican agrees with me, but they will. but i want to do it even bigger than the democrats because this is money going to people that did not deserve what happened to them coming out of china. now to just put it very simply, we want to do it, but nancy pelosi doesn't want to do it. we'll see whether or not she changes her mind. but we want to do it because people need help and they should get help. >> welcome back. that was president trump this morning saying he wants an even bigger deal than what democrats are proposing or have passed. and that republicans will get on board even though there'd no indication that would happen. nancy pelosi says today is the deadline for negotiators to reach some sort of deal on covid relief if there's going to be a bill passed before election day. yes, that pause is the sound of crickets. with me is steny hoyer. congressman hoyer, good to see you, as always. today is the deadline. but a deadline over what?

i saw john thune earlier today who is number two in the senate among senate republicans said he doesn't know if there's 13 republicans to join all the democrats to avoid a filibuster in the senate to get your 60 votes. he doesn't think there's 13 republicans for whatever the president is proposing. where does that leave us? >> it leaves us with a deeply divided republican party. you just did a quote from the president about he wanted to do higher than pelosi. he says pelosi doesn't want a deal. that's baloney. we passed a deal at less sums apparently than the president wants to exceed pelosi by. so the fact of the matter is we passed a bill. apparently less sums than the president says he'll support. have his republicans put that on the floor in the united states senate and see what the vote is. i think there are 13 republicans who are worried about their election and worried about helping people. mcconnell and mccarthy both said let's wait. that's what they're doing. you know, the republicans are deeply divided.

it's awfully tough to negotiate when mnuchin has to go from pelosi over to mcconnell to find out whether mcconnell will get people and thune just pointed out, they don't have the votes over there. so they ought to make a deal with schumer and mcconnell won't do it. i'll tell you this, pelosi is negotiating. she's speaking for schumer and she speaks for the house majority that could pass a deal that was made. mnuchin can't and that's unfortunate. mcconnell doesn't even come into the room. so there we are. >> is the real sticking point not on cost, per se, but on aid to states? i mean, is that the sort of political hurdle? >> yeah, i think that's one of the sticking points, which is unfortunate because, you know, mcconnell, when we passed our bill in may, on may 15th, which was a larger bill, 3.4, we've come down to 2.2. reduced ours by 35%. trying to get to an agreement with the senate.

and the senate has done nothing, of course, with that. haven't considered it. haven't rejected it. haven't put a bill on the floor that can pass in the senate. but states and localities, municipalities, they are on the front line of fighting covid-19. they hire the teachers, docs in their hospitals and nurses and sanitation workers, police, firefighters. they are on the front line and governor hogan of my state, chuck, as you know, and governor cuomo joined together with all of the governors. republican and democrat. they said, look, we need $500 billion. we are hemorrhaging revenue and we won't be able to maintain services. they don't maintain services, the fight against covid-19 and the rebuilding of our economy and energizing the creation of and sustaining of jobs will be almost impossible. that's why we're trying to get an agreement. if the prrkesident is for a greater number than pelosi, let

him have the senate that he says will go along with him. let him have that bill put in. if he does that, i think the senate will pass it, and we'll pass it. >> is it fair to say then that we're better off trying regular order here? you guys have passed a bill. maybe you can pass another version of 2.2 and if the senate wants to pass one that's half a trillion, so be it and you do something really crazy around here in washington, which is you go and actually try to reconcile the two bills? i know that's a crazy way to govern these days having the house pass a bill and the senate pass a bill and try to reconcile. i know that's nutty and we don't do things that way anymore, but is there -- is there any plausible way of doing things? >> as you speak, you know i'm an institutionalist. i think that's the way the system works best. and that's what we should have done. we sent them a bill. they didn't like our bill in may. this is five months ago we've been working on this. they didn't like our bill. fine. that's the system. put a bill on the floor that can

pass. now mcconnell will not make a deal with schumer. that's a problem. he doesn't want to negotiate. let me tell you, when john boehner and paul ryan could not get agreement on their side of the aisle on a number of things, t.a.r.p. is a perfectthings, t.a.r.p. is a perfect example, people don't remember, sandy relief is another example, more recently debt limit is an example. boehner and ryan came across and talked to nancy and myself and we got the votes. we put it together on a bipartisan basis. we passed a bill. we did our job. as a matter of fact, we've done it twice, chuck. we passed one. it wasn't agreeable. we came down 35%. didn't do as much as we thought we ought to do but what we have to do and nothing's happened, except the president says he wants to go higher than nancy. god bless him. go for it. have mcconnell, and tell him, put a bill on the floor. i think the senate would pass

that bill and then we'd pass it. >> congressman steny hoyer, number two in the democratic house leadership, this is a case where i think you guys have right now the voting facts on your side. what we're left with is a lot of empty space here on the senate republican side. congressman, thank you for coming on. up next, a solution for california voters displaced by wildfires and trying to figure out, how can we get these folks to be able to cast their ballots? keep it here. before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new?

-audrey's expecting... -twins! ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan.

welcome back. record-breaking world fires continue to burn in colorado this week, including the largest in that state's history. just think about what these wildfires have done out west. california, oregon, washington state, now colorado. in california, though, many are still dealing with the aftermath of the devastating fires that forced them to flee their homes in august and september, and that makes things like voting tough. santa cruz county has come up with a solution. it's a vote-mobile that comes to voters. nbc's jake ward is out with the vote-mobile in santa cruz, california. wow, this is especially in this environment, the double-whammy of the pandemic and wildfires, seems like a pretty good idea. jake, what can you tell us about it? >> reporter: chuck, this has been -- being here in santa cruz, it has a lucky feel. people going by on unicycles, surfers over the ridge here, and yet this has been a terrible

year, as it has for so many people. thousands of people displaced by record breaking wildfires that took place miles from where i'm standing. what do you do? the votemobile is the solution. it can do everything the local election office can do. you can vote here at one of several tablets. you can get a ballot in spanish. you can drop off your ballot, you can register to vote. everything you would need to do. and when you consider that all of that happens on top of 15 ballot boxes that serve the 168,000 registered voters in this county, that's a new record for santa cruz county, plus all the traditional ballot places and votemobile, you compare that to places like ohio and texas where only one ballot box is allowed per county, it's extraordinary to see how seriously this county is taking voting this year, chuck. >> jake, it's the difference between common sense solutions, okay, how do we do this, versus

political solutions you just described there. jake ward in santa cruz, thanks very much. and thank you all for being with us this hour. thank you for trusting us. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." msnbc's coverage continues with katy tur. ith katy tur with new bounce pet hair & lint guard, your clothes can repel pet hair. one bounce mega sheet has 3x the hair fighting ingredients of the leading dryer sheet. simply toss into the dryer to bounce out hair & lint. look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet! pet hair is no match for bounce. it's available in fresh scent & unscented. with bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less.

before we talk about tax-s-audrey's expecting... new? -twins! ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan.

whatever road you take, make sure your tires are ready to get you there safely. right now at midas, buy three cooper tires, and get one free. find your tires at midas.com

good afternoon. i'm katy tur. it's 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the east. we are exactly two weeks out from election day or what is now being considered the end of the election day. as of this morning, more than 29 million votes have already been cast. nearly 4 million in texas alone, a state that polls show could truly be a swing state for the first time since jimmy carter. in florida, another tossup. that number is about 2.5 million. and in north carolina and georgia, both states democrats are pushing to flip, roughly 3 million have voted. accord willing to nbc news