wednesday night. special shout-out to stage manager eddie -- you did not see what he deserved credit for. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. i am lip reading you right now because i can't actually hear you. right now because i can't actually hear you, so i'm just telling you that. telling our control room right now that i don't have any audio at this point. which is fine, as long as i am talking and you can hear me, but i know we're going to 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 this 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 were weirded out by it. as you can see here, 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. that's the group to which the president gave a weird sort of "stand by" shout-out at the first debate. but this email, which, again, went to at least 16 of our viewers who thought then to send it to us, this email is just a straight-up threat. again, subject line -- "vote for trump or else!" then it says "we are in possession of all your information" with redact --

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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 teachers weren't welcome in the classroom. she's on the board of a school that doesn't let kids in if 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. i mean, 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. nonetheless, her confirmation is hurdling ahead. today, senate democrats signaled they're not done fighting. senator chuck schumer, the top senate democrat, announcing today, quote, democrats will boycott the illegitimate mark-up tomorrow of judge barrett's nomination to judiciary and not provide the quorum required. health care is at stake. rights are at stake. the republican party is showing they're only concerned with political power. we will not stop fighting. back with us now, senator chuck schumer, top democrat in the senate. tell us what this means, boycotting that proceeding will mean no democrats are 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 too not want to provide the quorum. we do not want to participate. look, rachel, this process is the most rushed, the most illegitimate, the most hypocritical process of any supreme court nominee we have ever, ever seen. the republicans just at will try to break the rules. they are so hell-bent on rushing this nominee through. and i think the reason is just the reason you 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 a woman'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 that it may never return to what it was, and it wasn't starting off in such a good place. but the bottom line is very simple -- we do not want to participate in an 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, he said, that would be wrong. and mitch mcconnell, of course, said that with merrick garland eight months before an election. now it's just about 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 pre-existing 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 illegitima illegitimate. the majority of americans say they should wait until the next election. >> senator, as you just described, there is -- >> it's infuriating. it's just infuriating what they're doing. i'm sorry. it just is infuriating. >> there have to be two members of the minority party, two members of the democratic party who are there in order for them to proceed with that vote tomorrow. you're saying that 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, as it was in his discretion? >> here's how backward the senate is from mcconnell. we can go to the parliamentarian and say, this nomination should not be brought to the floor of the senate because it broke the judiciary committee rules. and she may well rule 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 3rd, 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? the 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 ram shackle over any rules. they are so hell-bent on putting this nominee in. and the reason -- you know, let's just look at it a little bit historically. the hard, hard right, which now mcconnell is part of, which so many of the republicans are part of, knows they can never 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, but they couldn't 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 go forward and block it as well, john mccain being the brave one, and they're now 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, sir. >> thank you, rachel. good to talk to you. >> again, senator schumer making news here tonight. he says that when the -- the way that supreme court nominees get voted on is they get voted on -- or any judicial nominee -- they

get voted on in the judicial committee and then goes to the full floor. that judicial committee vote is tomorrow and he's saying that 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. it raises the question as to whether or not democrats may refuse to participate in that vote as well. i know they're going to 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 that 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. it's a remarkable time in this country. all right, much more to get to tonight. stay with us. all right, much moo tonight. stay with us if you have medicare, listen up. the medicare enrollment deadline is only weeks away. with so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit? having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket. and that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. with healthmarkets' fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from national insurance companies to find the right medicare plan that fits you. call or visit healthmarkets to find your fitscore today. in minutes, you can find out if your current plan is the right fit and once you've let the fitscore do the work, sit back and enjoy not having to shop for insurance again. healthmarkets' fitscore forever technology will continuously scan the market for the best coverage at the best price. so you can shop once and save again and again and again. rest easy knowing you'll have the right plan at the right price and the right fit for you. best of all, their services are completely free.

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today, this is idaho -- "grim updates from st. luke's magic valley, cassia and minidoka hospitals. minidoka and cassia are holding but have very high positivity rates, 30% to 40%. st. luke's magic valley has no more room. all are reporting critical staffing shortages." idaho reported 800 new covid cases yesterday, 800 in a day, the most the state has ever confirmed in a single day. covid cases are on the rise in almost all 50 states now. the city of boston, massachusetts, today announced it was snapping back to some previous restrictions as the epidemic starts to take off there again as well. boston public schools announced today that 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 hospitals in that hard-hit state. it's the same story of overrun hospitals up 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's now telling people who test positive that they need to do their own contact tracing, because north dakota state tracing operations are completely over loaded. the republican governor of north dakota, dougbergham, refuses to issue a mask mandate, saying it's not a magic bullet, but the mayor of fargo, north dakota, used his emergency powers to

enact a mask mandate for the people living under his jurisdiction in fargo. the mayor saying, "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 that we thought were really important to look at and hospitalizations are very important, death rates are very important, and how much spread you're seeing in your community. all summer, we bottom bounced. i call it wildlife fishing, 2%. so when we had a positivity rate at 2% and now we're heading to 19%, that's huge. and so that 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's a small state, and you don't want to overwhelm your hospitals. >> mayor mahoney, your active leadership on this cleared the way for at least one other city, the city of minot, to follow in your footsteps just 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 kinds of mandates, just to try to slow

down that dramatic spread that you're describing? >> we talked to the ten major mayors from the ten largest cities in the state, and there was a lot of interest in the mask mandate. they're nervous because we keep seeing the numbers going up. so i sent 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. and they post information on dozens of hospitals, and i was struck going through it by the numbers of zeros i was seeing on those tables for hospitals after hospital after hospital and community after community reporting zero staffed icu beds available. now, 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 area 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, are you going to overwhelm them because of referrals in from other parts of the state? so, we do have people now working up on surge techniques, so adding staff and 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 a trauma one center here in fargo. we take a lot of different referrals into the community, and you just 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 are having surge plans with us. so, 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 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 i think we'll make some change ls. see what we do in the next two weeks. >> mayor mahoney, i like to hear that optimism. thank you, sir. thank you for being with us. all right, it's been an incredibly busy day. more ahead. staying with us. edibly busy day. more ahead staying with us.

new polling out tonight from fox news. i know, i know, it's fox news, but their polling unit is totally normal. i swear. in ohio, tonight's fox news poll has trump over biden in ohio by three points. in wisconsin and in

pennsylvania, tonight's fox news poll has biden over trump by five points. and in michigan, tonight's fox news poll has biden over trump by 12 points. but here's the thing -- these polls are all plus or minus three points in terms of a margin of error, which means that these new polls show that, yes, biden is ahead in michigan, because that's outside the margin of error, but given that margin of error, it's probably best to say that the two candidates are close in ohio and pennsylvania and wisconsin. the nbc news national polling average right now, for what it's worth, currently has biden up over trump nationally by between eight and nine points. okay. all of this practically means nothing, of course. it just means, if you want your favored candidate to win the election, you must absolutely positively vote. now's the time. and anything else you're planning to do -- volunteering, door-knocking, phone banking, donating, anything -- now's the time. two weeks from now, you are going to want to wake up the morning after election day

knowing you did everything you possibly could, right? tomorrow will be the final debate, i guess, maybe, seems like. it's due to start at 9:00 p.m. eastern. nbc's kristen welker moderating. the trump campaign and president trump himself already vociferously complaining about how unfair it is, this debate, even though it hasn't happenedet. tonight, former president barack obama brought the house down at his first in-person campaign event for biden and harris. the former president's appearance obviously intended to stoke voter enthusiasm and democratic turnout in pennsylvania, where he spoke. i think it's 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 around 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 fox news might have been a little concerned about that? they would have called me beijing barry. >> the honking that you hear there is because this is a drive-in rally. people in their cars honking their horns as a ways of applauding. president obama campaigning tonight for joe biden and kamala harris in the great state of pennsylvania. there are 13 days to go. everybody's got their foot on the gas. stay with us. r foot on the gas. stay with us

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night's third -- well, i guess, second and final presidential debate. i will be co-hosting that along with nicolle wallace and joy reed and our friend, brian williams. we will be anchoring that coverage starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern. i will see you then. "way too early with kasie hunt" is up next. before the plague came in, i had it made. i wasn't coming to erie. i mean, i have to be honest, there was no way i was coming. i didn't have to. i would have called you and said, hey, erie, if you have a chance, get out and vote. we had this thing won. >> you know, i know the president spent some time in erie last night, and apparently, he complained about having to travel here, then he cut the event short. poor guy. i don't feel that way. i love coming to pennsylvania. you guys delivered for me twice, and i am back here tonight to ask you to deliver