be firing people, not going to be attacking people, not going to be arguing with lesley stahl or with dr. fauci. they would like a president, maybe, who would focus on their needs. how do we get health care for all? how do we deal with the pandemic. so maybe it's time for us to focus on the needs of the american people and not just the craziness of donald trump. >> senator bernie sanders, thank you so much for making time for us tonight. that's all for tonight, many thanks to our stage manager who pulled off an incredible save that you did not see. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. >> good evening, chris, i'm lip reading you because i can't actually hear you, i'm telling our control room right now that i don't have any audio at this point, which is fine, as long as i'm talking and you can hear me. but i know we'll be bringing on some guests in just a moment so my audio cut out in the middle

of senator sanders speaking to chris hayes there. but we'll take it from here. it's been that kind of a day. it's 13 days until the election. over the last 24 hours, i need to tell you, we at the show have had at least 16 different people, 16 different viewers of the show send us a version of this email. we got these just from regular folks, just viewers of the show who said they received it and why weirded out by it. as you can see, the subject line is "vote for trump or else." the email is made to look like it comes from the violent far right pro-trump group the proud boys, the group to which the president gave a weird sort of "stand by" thshoutout at the fit debate. but this email, who 16 of our viewers thought to send it to us, it's a straight up threat. it says, "we are in possession of all your information."

what's redacted there is the name of the voter to which this was sent. it uses the full name of the voter and then says, "we are in possession of all your information. you are currently registered as a democrat. we know this because we have gained access to the entire voting infrastructure. you will vote for trump on election day or we will come after you. change your party affiliation to republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. we will know which candidate you voted for. i would take this seriously if i were you." and then at that point, if the threat isn't loud enough, it gets very much louder when at that point in the email, what's inserted there in that last black box there that we've redacted is the voter's actual physical street address printed at the end. so it's sent to a person's direct email address, starts off with their full name in that first redacted text box, and then at the end, after saying "we will come for you," "we will come after you unless you vote

for donald trump," it then includes the voter's street address. "good luck." now, the reason i think people forwarded these emails to us, www.sendittorachel.com, i think the reason people sent these to us and not because they're janky, spammy threats, but because this kind of a threat does get much sharper, does get much more of your attention when it's directed to you at your email address, includes your physical address, along with this threat that they're coming to get you. most of the viewers who contacted us and sent us their versions these threatening emails are from florida, although we got these from voters in more than one state. the -- most of them being from florida seems to jibe with

public reporting that it's mostly florida voters who have been targeted with these vote trump or else emails. according to reports, they've also turned up in arizona, alaska, and pennsylvania. at least one of the people who sent us their version of this email sent it to us from alaska, so we can corroborate that as well. i'm not sure we know yet how many of these threatening emails went out, how many voters got these vote trump or else threats. but out of the blue it's kind of remarkable to me that at least 16 people who view this show got those emails and decided to send them to me basically because they wanted to report it to the media. but most of the folks who sent us their version of the email did also tell us they had reported it to the fbi. now, tonight, the fbi announced this very short notice press conference. they said, to alert the american people about some serious election security matter, and we think these vote trump or else emails were what they were

talking about. but it's hard to know. they never actually said what they were talking about. two of the four officials who stood up there at the podium didn't talk at all. none of them took any questions whatsoever which means it wasn't a press conference, it was just a press release they read out loud. the fbi director was one of only two officials who spoke at this event this evening. and he said substantively nothing. he just spoke in vague generalities about how hard the fbi is working to make sure everything is cool in the election and you should call them if you see a crime. he said nothing specifically about what's happened here at all. what we got at this odd not-press-conference was a written statement read aloud by director of national intelligence john ratliffe who was recently appointed by president trump. we got this drama, short notice press conference on election security, there is drama in that. but what it comes to what he

actually communicated, frankly nobody actually knows what he was talking about. >> we would like to alert the public that we have identified that two foreign actors, iran and russia, have taken specific actions to influence public opinion relating to our elections. first, we have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by iran, and separately by russia. this data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine your confidence in american democracy. to that end, we have already seen iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage president trump. you may have seen some reporting

on this in the last 24 hours or you may have even been one of the recipients of those emails. >> what are you talking about? spit it out. i mean, this is the newly-appointed director of national intelligence, john ratcliffe, who until now has had trouble remembering that the office of national intelligence is not supposed to be an arm of the trump campaign. we assume what he's talking about here is these intimidating vote trump or else emails that were sent to democratic registered voters in florida and in numerous other states, but maybe that's not what he's talking about. why would you look at those vote trump or else emails and describe them as an effort to damage president trump? these are threatening emails literally telling democratic registered voters that if they don't vote for president trump, a violent far right group of

supporters will come after them and by the way they know where you live. how is that an effort to damage president trump? the director of national intelligence is calling this an attack by iran. at least i think this is what he's describing as a attack by iran. but he says this is an effort to hurt president trump when clearly this is the effort to do something opposite. maybe he's talking about something else altogether. we don't know, he never explained. as to what else was said at this dramatic press conference, this was the whole rest of it. >> additionally, ran iran is distributing other content to include a video that implies that individuals could cast fraudulent ballots even from overseas. this video and any claims about such allegedly fraudulent ballots are not true. although we have not seen the same actions from russia, we are

aware that they have obtained some voter information just as they did in 2016. rest assured that we are prepared for the possibility of actions by those hostile to democracy. we are standing before you now to give you the confidence that we are on top of this. >> we are on top of this. but we are not going to say what "this" is. we're not going to say what russia did at all. we're going to characterize it as something that's just like they did in 2016. we're going to say that this attack that we are attributing to iran which we're not going to describe was designed to hurt president trump but we think from public reporting that what they're describing is an attack that was designed to hurt people who might vote against president trump. what the heck is this? to be honest, i sort of expect this kind of mishegas from

director ratcliffe given his track record as dni. but why did the fbi stand for this? a, why didn't they speak, b, why did none of them take questions? what's going on? moments before the fbi convened this weird raises more questions than it answers press conference, "the washington post" had a scoop on at least part of the story here. the "washington post" scoop at least makes some sense, at least it's coherent, unlike what we heard from director ratcliffe. "the post" reporting that homeland security officials briefed homeland security

administrators that those emails that 16 viewers sent to us, homeland security officials apparently warned state and local officials per "the washington post" that a foreign government was responsible for those emails, and, quote, homeland security officials also said they had detected holes in state and local election websites and instructed those participating to patch their online services. it is from that "washington post" reporting this evening that we can surmise that maybe what trump's intelligence director was talking about tonight was these vote trump or else emails. it still makes no sense that these emails as an effort to damage president trump. they were an effort to intimidate people into voting for president trump. we still don't know what anybody means about russia's involvement here or about russia and iran both accessing voter registration data. it seems like very serious has happened. what it is, no idea.

joining us now, though, is "washington post" national political reporter amy gardner who shared a byline on this scoop tonight from "the washington post" with her colleagues. ms. gardner, thank you so much for joining us tonight, i know it's been a busy night. >> thank you for having me. >> as you can tell, i'm a little bit bewildered by what's just happened, i feel like i got more clarity from you and your colleagues than i do from that odd statement from dni ratcliffe. is there any bit about that that i seem confused about that you can clarify? are there parts of this that you and your colleagues have figured out, that the public statement from the odni tonight might have occluded? >> i can certainly try. i cover voting issues for "the post." i learned about this by talking to local state and election officials who were on a call with the department of homeland security and fbi officials who briefed them that there was a

foreign government that was behind the proud boys emails that you described. and i think what's really important is what they told state and local election officials is that in addition to the foreign involvement, they said that there are many state and local election websites, government websites, that have holes in them that need to be patched. what they're trying to tell these government officials and the public is that the foreign interference is not necessarily going to, you know, mess with the vote count or actually undermine the integrity of our election results, but that they believe that the potential hacking and the actual hacking into these email systems of the proud boys has this potential to undermine public confidence, and they want the public to have the understanding that that can't happen, it's incredibly difficult.

our voter registration you know databases are not even -- excuse me, our vote counts are not evenly onlieven online, our voting systems are not even online, and it's very difficult if not impossible to hack into without actually being in this country and physically affecting the equipment. but this kind of thing, hacking into the proud boys emails and sending out these blasts to democratic voters has the potential to make everyone think that a hack is possible and has the potential to undermine our confidence even though that's not necessarily the case. and i think that that is what the federal officials were trying to convey. >> and so the warning from federal officials to the state and local election officials who you spoke to was specifically, just to make sure i get this right, that iran was behind the hacking of the server which led to these emails going out, these vote trump or else emails. were they also advised that both

iran and russia were taking advantage of what you described as holes in state and local election websites, that they might be targeting local elections infrastructure in order to get ahold of things like voter registration data? was that also described to them and was that described as the work of both russia and iran? >> no. and in fact the federal officials did not tell local and state officials which foreign actors were involved, they were just told it was a foreign actor. we don't really know what russia as we understand to do with the voter registration information it's received. what the fbi and the department of homeland security want the public and officials at the state and local level to understand is that they need to shore up these websites at the state and local level. and there are small cities and towns that run elections that might not have the most secure websites. and if foreign actors can get

into those websites and hack and maybe put messages out there that make the public think they're not secure, that's problematic. but mostly as an optics issue, mostly as a perception issue. and they want those state and local officials to patch those holes now to prevent those kind of hacks. but at the same time they're trying to make the point, which local and state officials agree with, that actually affecting our election results is incredibly difficult and unlikely. >> amy, just one last question for you. do you have any insight into why dni ratcliffe described this as an effort to hurt president trump? >> i wonder that myself. the one thing i can think of is that this made the proud boys look bad. and the head of -- the chairman of proud boys, enrico tario, is the florida state chairman or director of latinos for trump. so it associates the proud boys with trump and associates this

hack with the proud boys. but honestly, i'm a little bit flummoxed myself. >> yeah. flummoxed is actually the word of the day today on a lot of different levels. "washington post" national political reporter amy gardner, thank you for being here, thanks to you and your colleagues for your reporting. i want to bring into the conversation former fbi assistant director and nbc national security director frank figliuzzi. frank, thank you for joining us for this as well. as amy gardner said, i feel flummoxed by what we heard from dni director ratcliffe tonight. what's your reaction this evening? >> "flummoxed" is a kindler, gentler word we can use. i am deeply concerned that this is just a glimpse of what i'm

calling the coming chaos. where to begin, rachel. look, we had a press conference controlled by the dni. number one, that struck me as unusual and really almost unprecedented in terms of announcing an operational, investigative-type finding. that's not supposed to happen. number two, we saw the dni downplay the russian angle here and play up iran and play up that this was all intended to somehow damage the president. that's a political spin on what should be a law enforcement and intelligence press conference. we saw the director of the fbi, as you mentioned, play a minor, secondary role probably because he was told to do so and he wants to stay in the fight and do the best for his agency and stay at his helm. we saw the absence of the attorney general tonight, which is very unusual, he's not made a whole lot of public appearances recently. here's what's concerns me

operationally for the future. if a foreign power can get our registration data and then target our address with it and get messages to us, they can take that data and they can change potentially your voting location. so we've talked about this kind of thing for months, that you don't have to mess with the actual outcome of the vote but rather you can have chaos on election day when people show up, show their i.d. where they usually vote, and be told their voting place is across the city or they are not even registered anymore. this is a signal, it's called a signal in the cyber security world, that i'm inside, i can do this, i'm here, and there's more to come. so this is just the tip of the iceberg. the fact that we're already politicizing this kind of intelligence work is deeply harmful. and don't be surprised if you see this theme replicated in the next days and weeks by the president who will say, this was to damage me, i'm on top of this. they're not on top of this. we have holes in our county,

local, and state registration systems. we've been saying this. senator mitch mcconnell has turned down extra money for security. and now we are realizing just now that we have ancient windows operating systems that are trying to -- you know, with scotch tape, trying to hold together computer systems that hold registration data and voter information. we're in for a bumpy ride, rachel. >> i think part of what was concerning to me about what director ratcliffe said tonight is the distance between what he said and the kind of concerns that were expressed, i mean, literally to me and to this show from a number of people who received these emails, were weirded out by them, sent them to us. most people who sent them to us told us they were also sending them to local fbi and law enforcement, which is great. but the reason people were sending them to the host of a cable news show they look at is because it's very concerning to see your real name, your real email address, and your real

physical address on this type of a targeted threat email that's saying we're going to come get you unless you do what we say. it has to be pointed out and it can't be said enough, that whoever people vote for in the election is secret, nobody knows who you voted for unless you tell them, and nobody's going to know whether you vote for president trump or for vice president biden. but people feel like -- i mean, when you get an email like this which points out your street address, that freaks people out. now, that information, i don't know if that information is the thing that director ratcliffe was describing when he said that iran and russia have access to voter information. but i think it's worth pointing out to people that that kind of information from the voter file is the sort of thing that campaigns have, that lots of different entities have access to. you don't have to have carried out some sort of major international hacking operation in order to get people's names and real addresses. he didn't clarify that at all. and i think that he's left a lot of people with the impression that the only reason their address is out there is because

of some foreign military intelligence service hacking it. >> well, you're right. conspicuous by its absence tonight was any kind of detailed information about which country did what. they're not even sharing country attribution with the local and state authorities. it's look like from reporting that perhaps iran owns this proud boys thing and yes, maybe in their view of our culture, if you associate violent threats with the proud boys, you're dragging in the president into it who seems to have aligned himself with proud boys. maybe that's where they're coming from. but i have to tell you there's a larger agenda here with both iran and russia which is simply to sow chaos and disruption. on the trust issue, and the fact that you raised, all of us, you, me, we're getting friends and strangers sending this, what do i do with this, i had that today, and i referred them to their local fbi field office. this is all about the lack of trust that's being engendered in

us about the eventual outcome of this election. again, i'm not only concerned about the external threat that's doing this to us, it's deeply concerning, but i'm also concerned about the internal threat that's going to keep amplifying this lack of trust, we can't trust the outcome. and you're going to see this amplified, an echo chamber, between foreign powers and the oval office and the dni to cause further and further doubt. >> former fbi assistant director frank little figliuzzi, thank joining us tonight on short notice, i really appreciate it. >> sure. >> i want to bring into the conversation now a very special guest, senator chuck schumer is the top democrat in the united states senate. i had tried to arrange to speak with senator schumer today on a whole host of different topics, but senator schumer, i'm so glad you're still able to be here tonight because i want to ask you about this too. i want to just get your reaction to what you've heard tonight from the director of national

intelligence and director wray at the fbi and ask if you know anything further about -- anything more than what they've told the public. >> well, i didn't hear their briefing, rachel, but i did receive a classified briefing this afternoon on this. and so i can't discuss the details, but i can tell you one thing. it was clear to me that the intent of iran in this case and russia in many more cases is to sow -- to basically undermine confidence in our elections. this action i do not believe was aimed, from my surmise, was aimed at discrediting president trump. i heard that the dni said that. it was, rather, done to undermine confidence in our election, aimed at democrats, republicans, independents, that people -- what iran and russia, and by the way russia is far worse of a culprit than iran on these things and should be focused on, but what they try to do, what they're trying to do here is, and as your previous

guest said, similar in a different way of course than what president trump is doing, undermine confidence in our elections. and, you know, this is the basis of our democracy. if people don't believe our elections are fair, that's the beginning of the end of this democracy. so i told the dni and told all of the intelligence officials that i talked to that they should do everything they can to prevent this from happening. there are tools that they can use and they should use them forthwith. >> to be clear, senator, i know that you can't speak about that classified briefing at all, but just i want to make sure i understand what you just said. director of national intelligence john ratcliffe tonight did say to the public that this attack, which he attributed to iran, although he didn't describe the attack, was designed to damage president trump. that sounds like what you just said.

that is not what he told you in the briefing? >> well, i'm not saying what he told me in the briefing. i can tell you that from the briefing, i had the strong impression it was much rather to undermine confidence in elections and not aimed at any particular figure but rather to undermine the very wellspring of our democracy, elections. that was my strong impression at the meeting. i did not get the impression it was aimed at any political figure. and i'm surprised that dni ratcliffe said that at this press conference if he did. >> wow. senator schumer, if you would stick with us for just a moment, i have a lot more to ask you about including the big news that you broke today about the confirmation process for judge amy coney barrett and what's expected in that process tomorrow. if you'll stick around with us, we'll be right back with the democratic leader of the united states senate, chuck schumer. stay with us. chumer ayst with us u & doug ♪ you know limu, after all these years it's the ones that got away that haunt me the most.

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here's part of the problem for ramming through a supreme court nomination as fast as possible. at the 11th hour today we find out through public reporting that judge amy coney barrett, quote, served for nearly three years on the board of a private school that effectively barred admission to children of same sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian attorneys weren't welcome in the classroom. she's on the board of a school who doesn't let kids in their parents are gay and won't allow gay people to teach there either. that might have been good to know at some point in this process. she's against kids if they have a gay parent. that kid must be punished and won't be allowed into her school. seriously. that bombshell reporting by the associated press came too late for senate democrats to get to ask judge barrett about that. nevertheless, her confirmation is hurtling ahead. today senate democrats, though, signaled they're not done fighting. senator chuck schumer, the top democrat in the senate, announced today, quote,

democrats will boycott the illegitimate markup tomorrow of judge barrett's nomination until the judiciary committee and will not provide the your imrequired. health care is at stake. rights are at stake. but the republican party is showing their concerned only with raw political power. we will not stop fighting. back with us now is senator schumer, the top democrat in the senate. senator, tell us what this means. boycotting that proceeding will mean that there are no democrats participating in the committee vote on whether or not to advance her nomination? >> that is correct. actually the rules of the committee require two democrats to be there to move a nominee out. and we do not want to provide the your quorum. we do not want to participate. this process is the most rushed, the most illegitimate, the most hypocritical process of any supreme court nominee that we have ever seen. the republicans at will try to break the rules. they are so hell bent on rushing

this nominee through and the reason is the reason you just pointed out. the longer it takes, the more things are going to come out that show that amy coney barrett is so far away from the american mainstream in terms of what she believes in terms of women's right to choose, health care, labor rights, civil rights, gun safety, lgbtq rights, that they don't want it out there very long, but they're rushing it through. and it's despicable. it's despicable. leader mcconnell, lindsey graham, have defiled the senate so it will never return to where it was and it wasn't starting off in a such a good place. the bottom line is simple. we do not want to participate in a illegitimate, illicit hearing. one final point. abe lincoln, the great republican, when he had a chance to put someone on the supreme court before an election, that would be wrong. and mitch mcconnell, of course, said that with merrick garland

eight months before an election. now it's eight days before an election, people are voting already, and they are rushing it through. they don't want the american people to know what amy coney barrett stands for in terms of people's rights, in terms of what america needs, wants. getting rid of health care, getting rid of the aca, and having 130 million americans lose their protections, if they have a preexisting condition, so the insurance company can rip something out right from under them, that's what they don't want people to know. that's what they don't want people to know. and we have brought that out over and over again. and i think people know this is illegitimate, the majority of americans say they should wait 'til the next election. >> senator, as you just described -- >> it's infuriating. it's just infuriating what they're doing. i'm sorry. it just is infuriating. >> there have been to be two members of the minority party, two members of the democratic party there in order for them to

proceed with that vote tomorrow. you're saying that will not happen. i expect that chairman lindsey graham will nevertheless try to dispense with the rule and just move on and take the vote anyway. do you have any means of trying to enforce that rule? >> well, here's how backward the senate is for mcconnell. we can go to the parliamentarian and say this nomination should not go to the floor of the senate because it broke the committee rules. she may well move in our favor. but then the majority leader has the power to overrule the chair and all he needs is 51 votes. and tonight i ask that we should adjourn for these reasons, that we should adjourn until november 3, after the election. and he had the parliamentarian rule that we -- i asked the parliamentarian, is this the first time a nominee has been moved forward so late, close to an election. parliamentarian agreed. i said, then we should adjourn,

and mcconnell, of course, used the 51 votes and the iron fist to just move forward. so they run ramshackle over any rules. they are so hell bent on putting this nominee in. and the reason, let's look at it a little historically. the hard, hard right, which now mcconnell is part of, which so many of the republicans are part of, knows they can never get -- move the clock back 100 years, which is what they want, taking away rights, just giving power to the special interests and the bosses, in a legislative body, even when they control it. so they want to go to the one unelected branch of government, the judiciary, and stack it with people whose views are so far away from where the american people are. and they can get it done because they're not elected. they tried to get rid of the aca, as you know, in the senate, but we blocked it, we had three

brave republicans come forward and block it as well, john mccain being the brave one, and they're going to the courts to try and undo it. >> senator chuck schumer, the top democrat in the senate, making a lot of news here with us tonight, it should be dramatic tomorrow when we see that come together. thanks for helping us understand. >> thank you, rachel, good to talk to you. >> again, senator schumer making news here tonight, he says that when -- the way the supreme court nominee the or any judicial nominee, they get voted on in the judiciary committee and then it goes to the full floor. that committee vote is tomorrow and he is saying that the democrats, every democrat on that committee will boycott that vote, and under the judiciary committee's rules, that means they won't have a quorum and they shouldn't even be able to proceed with the vote. they will presumably proceed with it regardless. that will then, though, set up another showdown if senator mcconnell tries to put this supreme court nomination vote to the floor of the senate early next week, which we believe is

his plan, raises the question as to whether or not democrats may refuse to participate in that vote as well. i know they'll get through this judiciary committee decision tomorrow and then decide on next steps. but that would be absolutely unprecedented and would be probably the loudest way the democrats could register their dissent against what the republicans are doing here with this absolutely, totally unprecedented rush to cram this nominee onto the supreme court just basically moments before a national election in which they're likely to lose control of both the senate and the white house. just a remarkable time in this country. much more to get to tonight. stay with us. stay with us look at this human trying to get in shape. you know what he will get? muscle pain. give up, the couch is calling. i say, it's me, the couch, i'm calling. pain says you can't. advil says you can. with priceline, you can get up to 60% off amazing hotels. and when you get a big deal...

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today, this is idaho. quote, grim updates from st. luke's, magic valley, cassia, and minidoka hospitals, very high positivity rates, 30 to

40%. st. luke's magic valley has no more room. all hospitals are reporting critical staffing shortages. idaho reported more than 800 new covid cases yesterday, 800 cases in a day, that's the most the state has ever confirmed in a single day. covid cases of course are on the rise in almost all 50 states now. today the city of boston in massachusetts announced that it was snapping back to some previous restrictions as the epidemic starts to take off there again as well. boston public schools announced today they are suspending all in-person learning for all boston public school students effective tomorrow. that means families got one-day notice. today a field hospital in wisconsin started admitting its first patients. that's a new relief valve there for overtopped, overtapped hapts in th hospitals in that hard-hit state. in north dakota, right now there are just 17 intensive care beds available in the whole state of north dakota. the vast majority of hospitals in the state reporting zero staffed icu beds available.

cases are growing so fast in north dakota that contact tracers can't keep up. the state is now telling people who test positive that they need to do their own contact tracing because north dakota state tracing operations are completely overloaded. the republican governor of north dakota still refuses to issue a mask mandate for the state. he says, quote, it's not a magic bullet. but the mayor of fargo, north dakota, decided to enact his own mask mandate for the people living under his jurisdiction in fargo. the mayor saying, quote, this is about science, not politics. this is our community's health. joining us now is the mayor of the great city of fargo, north dakota, dr. tim mahoney. mr. mayor, thank you so much for being here, i really appreciate you taking the time. >> you're very welcome. this is a really serious problem for our community and our state so i'm very pleased to help out, helping people get better. we hate to be number one in the

country for covid spread. so we really want to help knock this thing down. >> it must have been a hard decision to make to institute this mask mandate. obviously we've seen the science, we've seen the data. i know you're a practicing surgeon yourself. you know how to understand medical information. the mask mandate makes a lot of sense in scientific terms but i imagine that politically and in terms of the logistics of dealing with that in a state where there haven't been any other mask mandates, it must have been a hard call. >> it was difficult. but we took about ten different reasons we thought were really important to look at. you cued them up earlier. hospitalizations are very important, death rates are very important. how much spread you're seeing in your community. all summer we bottom-bounced, i call it in walleye fishing, we were at 2% and now we're heading to 19%, that's huge. so you have a higher risk of people catching it. so whatever tools we can use to

help decrease the spread, it's extremely important to us because, as you know, north dakota is a small state and you don't want to overwhelm your hospitals. >> mayor mahoney, your act of leadership on this cleared the way for at least one other city, the city of minah, to follow in your footsteps hours after you issued this mandate. have other communities in the state reached out or do you expect that other hard hit communities in the state might continue following in your lead and might institute these kind of mandates just to try to slow down that dramatic spread that you're describing? >> we talked to the mayors from the ten largest cities in the state. there was a lot of interest in the mask mandate. they're nervous because we keep seeing the numbers going up. i set out what our mask mandate was, shared it with all the mayors. and you may see other mayors coming on board in the next couple of weeks. >> i went through the data today produced by the state as they're

tracking bed space in the state's hospitals. they post information on dozens of hospitals. i was just struck, going through it, by the number of zeroes i was seeing on those tables for hospital after hospital after hospital and community after community reporting zero staffed icu beds available. i know fargo has had at least a couple of beds available in recent days even as other parts of the state haven't. are you worried that you will not only have trouble with your own population in fargo being able to make sure you've got facilities to treat people who become ill in your city, but that you also effectively serve as a catchment facility for the whole state for lots of communities that are going to be looking for intensive care beds and critical care capacity? >> very much so. the city of fargo has two major hospital systems. and they do very well to keep up. but my concern is, we're going to overwhelm them because of referrals from other parts of the state. we do have people right now

working on surge techniques, adding staff, increasing the hospital beds in our community. but it's truly a concern, if you only have four or five beds ready now, because we have no trauma one center here in fargo. we take a lot of different referrals into the community. you don't want to overwhelm it for regular care and then have covid on top of it. so we're working very closely with those systems. and they're having surge plans with us, for what we do if it gets even worse. >> dr. tim mahoney, the mayor of fargo, north dakota, just instituted a mask mandate in that state where there is no statewide mask mandate. sir, i know that you are in the heart of it and please keep us apprised, we're all worried about what we're seeing in north dakota with these worst case numbers in the country. you're in a hard spot. help us keep the country apprised as to how you're doing and what you need. >> very much so, we're going to bend the curve, you watch what our people do, i think they'll

respond positively to this and you'll see what we do in the next two weeks. >> mayor mahoney, i like to hear the optimism. thank you for being with us. it's been an incredibly busy day. more ahead. stay with us. with us

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new polling out the tonight from fox news. i know, i know, it's fox news but the polling unit is totally normal. trump over biden in ohio by 3 points. in wisconsin and in pennsylvania, tonight's fox news poll has biden over trump by 5 points. and in michigan biden over trump by 8 points. but here's the thing. these polls are all plus or minus 3 points in terms of of a margin of error which means these new polls show that biden is ahead in michigan, because that's outside the margin of error. but given that margin of error

it is probably best to say that they are close in ohio and pennsylvania and wisconsin. the nbc news national polling average for what it's worth has biden over trump nationally by between 8 and 9 points. okay. all of this practically means nothing, of course. it just means if you want your favorite candidate to win the election, you must absolutely positively vote. now is the time. and i go else you're planning to do, volunteering, door knocking, phone banking, now is the time. two weeks from now you'll want to wake up the morning after election day knowing you did everything you probably could. right? tomorrow will be the final debate, i guess, maybe, it seems like, it is due to start at 9:00 p.m. eastern. the trump campaign and president trump himself already vociferously complaining with how unfair it is, this debate, even though it hasn't happened yet. tonight former president barack obama brought the house down at his first in-person campaign

event for biden and harris. the former presses's appearance obviously intended to stoke voter enthusiasm and democratic turnout in pennsylvania where he spoke. i think it is also probably safe to say that it was intended to stoke president trump into some kind of a crazy reaction. president obama drives president trump so nuts anyway even on a normal day, this stuff from president obama tonight is likely going to send president trump round the bend. >> we know that he continues to do business with china because he's got a secret chinese bank account. how is that possible? how is that possible? a secret chinese bank account. listen. can you imagine if i had had a secret chinese bank account? when i was running for re-election? you think, you think fox news might have been a little concerned about that? they would have called me

beijing berry. >> this is drive-in rally so people are honking as a way of applauding. he is campaigning for joe biden and kamala harris in the great state of pennsylvania. there are 13 days to go. everybody has their foot on the gas. stay with us. more amazing than. isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel. more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze in every gain fling.

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i said it wrong and we showed a wrong graphic about it about, the polls that we just showed. i said the new fox news michigan poll has joe biden over president trump by 8 points in michigan. that's wrong. we said a typo. the poll actually shows joe biden up by 12 points over president trump in michigan. he has a lead there of 12 in that poll. not 8 points. i am very sorry about that. it has been that kind of a day. anyway, that will do it for us tonight. terribly sorry about that mistake. i will see you again tomorrow night. an hour earlier than usual. 8:00. you can tune in to start our special coverage of tomorrow night third, i guess, second and final presidential debate. i will be co-hosting that along with nicole wallace and joy reid. now it's time for "the last word." >> we're all eager to find out how