>> yep, it's friday. the campaigns hit the trail after last night's final debate which finally gave voters some clarity on the differences between the two candidates. what it all means in the final stretch of the campaign with just 11 days to go. plus the u.s. sets the all-time record for single day covid cases as health officials brace for this dark chapter in the pandemic that many have warned about. dr. anthony fauci joins us live with what our country and our leaders need to do to turn it around. and in the battle for control of the senate democrats and republicans have georgia on their minds. we'll talk to one of the top candidates in one of the two races that maybe thought well beyond election night. welcome to friday. it is "meet the press" daily.

i'm chuck todd. we tuned in expecting a fight but a debate broke out last night. hats off to our nbc news colleague kristen welker for a job well-done, commanded control was key there. revealing exchanges last night on the candidate's approaches to numerous issues, a raging pandemic, health care, race and racism in this country, climate change and many others. we're going to dive into the highlights in a moment. but with just 11 days to go the biggest headline is it doesn't appear there's a headline knowing to change the overall trajectory of this presidential race. and already the virus is back in focus with a vengeance as the united states reported nearly 80,000 new cases yesterday, breaking the single day record. and sadly as we've seen, it doesn't appear we're peaking anytime soon. looks like this curve is still going up. the president is once again butting heads with his public health exerts pz athey sound the

alarm. returning to the presidential race, democrats are taking heart after a mostly steady performance from biden allowing them to seize on a mostly predictable series of falsehoods from the president. allowing them to try to seize on a few unforced errors from biden that could be a vital lifeline for candidates down the ballot, and that may be who benefitted the most last night is down ballot republicans. but the political crisis for the president remains. with 11 days to go, more than 47 million votes already cast, in a the urge ens around the trump campaign is undeniable and the president is wasting no time trying to get back on the campaign trail last night. he has two rallies in florida later today, three events in ohio, wisconsin, and another rally in new hampshire on sunday. joining me now outside the white house is nbc's kelly o'donnell.

also with us maria tracy kumar, msnbc contributor, and republican strategist brad todd, but let me start with things at the white house. kelly o'donnell, i know the president just got done announcing that suh dan is the latest country to join what is the abraham accords and officially recognizing israel, so i know that's the news of the hour, if you will. there's a lot of confidence coming from the trump campaign today about that debate, and there's a lot of talk about a state that none of us has been talking about -- minnesota. >> well, chuck, the campaign has been focused on minnesota today in conversations with reporters and stressing that they have 60 paid staffers on the ground, that they're watching the balloting, those who voted early and knowing where ballots are and which ballots have yet to come in, and so they're trying

to focus on that. if you remember, of course, four years ago that was a state the president did not win, but they came very close, and they're trying to claim it is a viable option for them now. they're also talking about the president's debate performance in very favorable ways, talking about the fact he was able to control some of his impulses to interrupt and have more command on the stage in part because certainly the moderating of our colleague, kristen welker, helped to facilitate that conversation, they're able to grab onto a few things joe biden said they think will help them in key states dealing in energy particularly in fracking and the oil industry. the with president is also going to tout fund-raising that they claim comes off his final night debate performance saying it's the biggest haul for the trump campaign they claim in the digital fund-raising for the joint account of trump victory which is the rnc and the president's campaign claiming $26 million. that's critical because we have

seen this campaign has had less resources, and the president has not opened his own checkbook yet. and one of the things the campaign manager talked about is having those new funds available to do some targeted fund-raising that would hit minnesota. they had been doing campaign buys there that were national buys. so using cable tv where it would hit minnesota but not necessarily buying in the local markets, so they claim they're going to invest there. as you set it up, the overall landscape still shows the president behind in a lot of polling. chuck? >> kelly, do they acknowledge -- it's interesting to me, you know, what their intent was at the debate they didn't get which was trying to rattle joe biden about hunter biden. it does seem as if the hunter stuff totally fizzled and sort has almost gone away. and i feel like the campaign this morning is almost acknowledging that in the fact they're talking about other

things. they are definitely talking about other things, and on one side the campaign is pleased it got into the forum of the discussion and that joe biden had to answer it on the stage the size of a final night debate, but it's not what they're talking about today. some of their surrogates are talking about those issues, but the president also spoke in some shorthand that for a mass audience they may not have been able to follow that conversation entirely. so the simpler issues are the ones they believe joe biden may have helped them with again on fracking and the oil industry. and that they think they can use in states like pennsylvania. they even invoked texas which of course has long been a red state, but the gap has closed. so it is an indication of how they are looking for the flowers to pull off of the vines today. >> and that's a nice way of putting it, a very elegant way of putting it there, cellokelly

o'donnell. let me turn over to biden world. i like to look at campaigns the way you look at opponents playing poker, do they have any tells. and if there was a tell from the biden folks last night, it was the fact they spent a little bit of time cleaning up this oil comment from the vice president last night. what is the level of concern about this? >> frankly, chuck, not that much. in the range of possible outcomes that they were prepared for in last night's debate one was that the president comes out looking a lot like and sounding like he did in cleveland or perhaps even worse. and in that case from their perspective not quite game over but it would certainly ease and expand their path to the white house in these last 11 days. the other they had to prepare for was one we did see last night, which is the president coming out more reversed, certainly trying to land some

blows that did. but as one advisor put it, it was pretty much a wash and we move on. another advisor saying this was the president's last chance to shake-up the race, and he's now fresh out of chances. they still like where they stand. as you say the bit of cleanup they were doing last night was on this issue of the fossil fuel industry and gas and its relationship, its future in this country. biden's position from early on was to propose a 100% clean energy production by 2035. so his answer last night is not that far off of what he has been proposing all along. the issue they felt he got tripped up is ending fossil fuel industries surs -- today in the next hour or so he's going to be speaking on

that, use this day after the final debate to talk about what they believe the number one issue is, the handling of the coronavirus and how he views the future if he's president laying out steps to open the economy, do so safely, though. >> mike, we know we've got former president obama is going to do a drive-in rally of sorts in miami. what is the joe biden schedule for the next 72 hours? because a lot of times that can tell us what are the states they feel they need to bring the nominee. >> so, chuck, pennsylvania has been by far the number one destination for joe biden. and that's where he's going to be heading tomorrow. an interesting location. you know that's one of the counties that saw the biggest swing from barack obama in 2012 to donald trump in 2016. when biden was doing a lot of campaigning in the 2018 mid-terms, the very last event he did was in luzerne county.

it was his way of sending a message to democrats at the time i'm the person who can win these places back. while some are focusing on texas and georgia, joe biden really hasn't veered very far from the michiganens, pennsylvanians, wisconsins of the world. and i think that's what we should expect to see most of his attention on in these last few days. they have a number of paths we believe, but that is the surefire and they believe the best use of the candidate's time is to lock those states in, chuck. >> getting us started. thank you both. let me bring in maria tureesy kum kumar and brad todd. we're a scaramucci away from the election, i thought that was clever. 11 days out. we're a scaramucci away from

election day. what happened last night. maria theresa, i'll start with you that changed anything in your mind. >> what i found really striking with the president is he lost the law and order line. he didn't talk about it at all, and that tells me he's more concerned with suburban white women. he thought that was going to be a tactic that was going to work for him. and he's now not speaking about it at all. and the other thing i found striking and it was from joe biden was that he was not only very empathetic, but he said, look, when it came to my legislation back in the 90s around incarceration and the missteps that we did with immigration, i apologize, we made a mistake. that is singularly, a piece of leadership we've not seen from

donald trump, and it was such a strike of contrast in character. >> what changed last night if anything in your mind? >> the biden campaign telling you it was a wash last night, those are always telltale signs when the campaign hasn't lost its faith. the reason he did is he found the way especially the last 15 minutes to move the debate to the future. joe biden is a creature of the past and president trump -- i thought at the end oof the debate the president did a pretty good job and joe biden failed to talk about the economy if either of them wins in the future. it also linked to his previous

plexiglass dividers in restaurants and sort of shutdown rhetoric regarding the virus. i thought you saw a common thread that didn't give anyone in the suburbs a whole lot of hope joe biden is going to get the economy moving very well. >> i think we watched different debates. >> i want to play two excerpts here. one is the oil excerpt you referred to, brad, later. and then one is on covid. because i think the two contrasts actually support both of your points of view here on this in different ways. let me play these excerpts and twrpt to ask you an angle i have in my head after it. first let's go with the oil answer, and then let's go with covid. go. >> i would transition from the

oil industry, yes. i would transition it. >> that's a big statement. >> it is a big statement. >> why would you do that? >> because the oil industry pollutes significantly. here's the deal, but you can't -- well, if you let me finish the statement. because it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time. and i'd stop giving to the oil industry. i'd stop giving them federal subsidies. >> basically what he's saying is he's going to destroy the oil industry. will you remember that, texas? will you remember that pennsylvania, oklahoma? >> takes everything out of context, but the point is, look, we have to move toward a net zero emissions. the first place to do that by the year 2035 is in energy production. by 2050, totally. >> i say we're learning to live with it. we have no choice. we can't lock ourselves up in a basement like joe does. >> he says we're learning to live with it. people are learning to die with it. learning to live with it?

come on. >> here's my question to the both of you, and it's this. and maria teresa i'll start with you. if you think this is an issues election the oil answer may matter more. if you think this is character election, perhaps the covid answer and the way that was handled by biden matters more. where's your head on this? >> you know who else is transitioning from oil? the oil industry. they recognize that is where their future is. so i don't know how aligned it is to not seeing straight where we need to go. and most of the folks he's talking about in texas, you already see a massive transition. that's one piece. but the other piece is people are scared and rightfully scared because they don't have leadership. the reason americans feel anxiety on their health care, on

their day to day economic survival has yes an element of covid but everything to do with the leadership at the top. donald trump has fumbled this in a big way. and he hasn't not only taken ownership but continues to deny the people straight answers on how to protect themselves at the most basic level. when you talk about who is he syphoning off, the reason why biden is spending so much time in pennsylvania and those is because you have a lot of republicans and independents saying this is enough. i cannot continue living day in and day out in anxiety where i don't even know if i can send my child safely to school because i can't trust the president to tell it to me straight. >> she's identified the moderate, nonliberal -- that's another way of saying nonliberal suburban voters. some of them are soft republicans, that's the swing voter. and they do have -- the thing

they fear about joe biden is that his policies would be so far left. and when you talk about eliminating fracking, and that's something biden has said before, no permits for fracking, you're scaring the heck out of those voters who think the economy is going to crash. voters aren't stupid. they worry about the fact transitioning away from fossil fuels like joe biden wants to do -- fracking pays for public schools. >> when he says fracking he's not going to allow fracking on federal land. i think that's very important to say. and let's me be honest transitioning to any technology doesn't happen overnight. that takes years. he's talking about transition in 15 years. we have to speak straight when we're having these conversations. the oil industry itself is investing tens of billions of dollars because they know that

is where their future is. he is bringing people along. and when we talk about he's suing voters, you know who else is sitting on the fence right now? you have millions of young people who one of the number one issues is climate change. hearing from someone that says i believe in science, i believe in climate change, he will get a lot of those young people who are not swing voters, but what they do is they decide not to participate, he's speaking their language saying, yes, i'm going to prioritize it. >> we're having the debate about the economy. the one issue the president maintains is the economy, so merely moving this campaign to the economy, even that is good for the president no matter what happens. >> this is the point i was trying to get you both -- i think you both like i said are sort of agreeing with this premise, which if you think this were an issue in the election i think you would as you just said, brad, the economic argument you can see where the president could get back into

this thing. but if it's a character election, which there are quite a few swing voters indicating that, then maybe not and maybe this was more of a help down the ballot for those folks in these lean red senate races. unfortunately i'm out of time, but i think the two of you actually framed this argument extraordinarily well. brad, more importantly it's good to see you. you look healthy, you look great, and i'm glad you're beating this thing. >> glad to be here. up ahead, this country just hit a record number of covid cases as the president once again falsely claims the virus is going away. my administer view with dr. anthony fauci, what the country is facing this winter and a vaccine, all of that is just ahead. d a vaccine, all of that is just ahead. ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans

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welcome back. politics and the pandemic. they are inextricably linked

these days. and at the same time as president trump and former vice president joe biden were squaring off on the debate stage, this country was hitting another grim milestone. more than 77,000 new cases were reported in a single day. it is our new one day record as a country. and more than 900 deaths were confirmed from coronavirus yesterday alone. the seven day average of cases is at its highest since the beginning of august. and we have more than 41,000 people currently hospitalized across the country. while the president continued to paint yesterday a falsely rosy picture of the situation. >> we have a vaccine that's coming. it's ready. it's going to be announced within weeks, and it's going to be delivered. it will go away and as i say we're rounding the turn, we're rounding the corner. it's going away. >> this is the same fellow who told you this is going to end by easter last time. this is the same fellow that

told you don't worry we'll end this by summer. he did virtually nothing and then he gets out of the hospital and talks about, don't worry, it's all going to be over soon. come on, there's not another serious scientist in the world who thinks it's going to be over soon. >> president trump, your reaction. >> i say we're learning to live with it. we have no choice. i say, you know, this is dangerous, and you catch it. and i caught it, i learned a lot. i learned a lot. great doctors, great hospitals, and now i recovered. 99.9 of young people recover. 99% of people recover. >> those statistics the president gave about recovery rates, they are not correct. and of course many health experts including my next guest, dr. fauci say the worst of this pandemic sadly is yet to come. the nation's top disease

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if you've ever experienced severe muscle weakness after receiving a flu shot. people with weakened immune systems, including those receiving therapies that suppress the immune system, may experience lower immune responses. vaccination may not protect everyone. side effects include pain, redness, and/or swelling where you got the shot, muscle ache, headache, and general discomfort. other side effects may occur. if you're 65+, don't settle for a standard-dose flu shot. move up to superior flu protection. see your health care provider and ask for fluzone high-dose quadrivalent by name. welcome back. i'm joined now by dr. anthony fauci, of course the director of the national institute of infectious diseases. dr. fauci, nice to see you. let me start with the grim record we just set over the last 24 hours, most cases in 24 hours

yet it's 77,000. what seems different this time, dr. fauci, is that there seems to be a lack of collective urgency about this latest peak. where does this end? are we going to 100,000? are we -- i mean, it feels like we are on this trajectory and have no way off of it right now. where are we headed, sir? >> chuck, i'm concerned about it and the reason i'm concerned is that as you mentioned our baseline of community infections that you see every day, you know, they've been anywhere from 20,000 and they went up to 65,000, 70,000 and now they're back up to the record you spoke about yesterday at over 70,000. that is a precarious place to be for a couple of reasons. because if you look at the map of the united states and several of the states right now for a number of reasons that we could discuss are having what we

call- call upticks in case positivities which are leading in cases to hospitalizations and will lead to an increase in deaths. and when you enter the season of the cooler months of the fall and the colder months of the winter where a lot of activity out of necessity is going to be inside as opposed to outside, that's a difficult and challenging situation to be in because you have a couple of factors against you. the amount of community spread as expressed by the number of cases per day, which as you said correctly yesterday was very high level of about 70,000 as well as the increases that we're seeing on the maps of the country going into the colder season is something we really need to appreciate, that we don't want to shutdown the country. every time i talk about things we need to do people get concerned we're talking about shutting down. we're not talking about shutting

down, but we're talking about doubling down on some of the fundamental public health measures we need to adhere to. the universal wearing of masks, the physical distancing, the avoiding congregant settings and crowds particularly indoor, doing thing tuesday the extent possible outdoor more than indoor such as dining and things like that to the extent we can with the weather and frequent washing of hands. they seem rather simple, chuck, but they really do work. you don't want the extreme. you don't want to say either shutdown which we don't want to do versus just don't worry about it, do whatever you want to do. there is a mean, a golden mean in there you can do public health things you know work, that can blunt these increases that we're seeing. >> look, at this point, though, it does feel as if politics is getting away. i've talked to the mayor of

sioux falls and asked why is he not doing a mask mandate and he said basically he politically couldn't. i've got to show you this oval office event today, sir. i'm going to put up pictures here. this is 30 people in the oval office while the president's on a speakerphone, and you're seeing nobody's wearing a mask. not ambassador o'brien, not jared kushner. there's one woman there is wearing a mask, and that is it. 30 people, you know the size of that oval office. i mean that is a violation of what a good practice is, is it not? >> yeah, i think what you're going to hear, chuck, with some solidi validity to it, but then again the image is not optimal for people to see, is that virtually everyone in that room that day was tested to go into the oval office, but still the image of that is something that may give

the wrong impression to people. >> well, chris christie said that he i think regrets that being tested he thought it was a safer environment, he said that's why he didn't wear a mask and he wished now that he would have worn a mask. let me ask you this. how much of the country is in this so-called red zone? and how come the task force doesn't make this public for all of us to see? >> well, right now if you're looking at it, there's a number of states, about 30 some odd states have picked up and ticked up into a level where they're increasing. that information i think could be public knowledge when, you know, dr. birx who spends a lot of time collecting that data, she's right now on the road going to different states trying to get some public health message there. but i believe that information could be made public.

i don't know understand why not. >> well, that's what we're wondering. we don't understand why it isn't either. it does seem as if -- it does raise the question wondering does the task force not want it public? is there fear of having people too worried about the virus? >> no, i don't think that's the case, chuck. i don't think that the task force doesn't want it to go out. being a member of the task force, i don't think that's the case. >> tell me about task force meetings these days. how much do they occur, and who runs them? >> well, they certainly are less than they used to be. we used to have them during the early spring when things were really hot particularly in the north eastern part when new york was having a terrible time. we were meeting 5, 6, sometimes 7 days a week. then some time, a few months ago when things pivoted around to more of the economic reopening of the country the number of

task force meetings have diminished and we're averaging right now about one a week. we had one last week. i was involved in that this week actually and as well as last week. we also have a governor's call that isn't an official task force meeting. by the way, you asked the question -- the vice president is definitely in charge of the task force meeting. and then the doctors, myself and dr. birx and redfield and dr. han and others we used to meet in person but now virtually once a week. but an official task force meeting in the last several weeks has been about one per week. >> and when was the last time you had the president at one of these task force meetings? >> at a task force meeting, that was several months ago, chuck. several months ago. >> and do you brief him often anymore? does he call you hup? he says you guys still talk. how often does he ask you your

advice? do you feel you have his ear as much as scott atlas? >> i definitely don't have his ear as much as scott atlas right now. that has been a changing situation. we certainly interact with the vice president at the task force meetsings, and the vice president makes our feelings and what we talk about there known to the president. but direct involvement with the president in discussions, i have not done that in a while. >> you said what we need to do at this point to mitigate if we could just do some of the basic simple things. is there a more robust federal role you'd like to see right now, and what would that be? if there's just one thing more you'd like to see from the federal response right now what would that be? >> yeah. you know, chuck, it would probably be a more uniformed direction of what states should do. one of the issues that we find that states do things a bit

differently. that's understandable in many respects because we have a big country, and the conditions in different states are different for so many reasons and regarding so many factors. but what i would love to have seen is a little bit more uniformity in what the states are doing so that you have a consistency so that everyone can look around and see what everybody else is doing and be part of a country response as opposed to individual responses. >> is that something that you think could still be put together? you know, i say this who knows what's going to happen in the next few months, but is that something that could still get rebuilt? >> you know, i don't want to start second guessing about what has begun and what could be done. i have always felt that uniformity of response and consistencies of response is always a good thing. people know where they stand, know what they need to do.

there are certain fundamental things that have not been adhered to consistently, and those were five things i mentioned to. the degree to which you have more strict public measures would depend on the level of infection in a particular community because you have to admit this is a large country and things are different. but there are some fundamental things that i think should be common denominators. when you do at least the minimal of that you can go a long way to preventing some of the surges that we've seen. >> finally on the vaccine, any new update -- it seems as if the consensus is something in the spring that would be out to at least a large chunk of the population. is that still the most realistic time line, or is that still a little ambitious? >> no, i think it's quite realistic, chuck. right now we have at least two of the six vaccines that the

federal government has made a major investment in. five of them are in phase three trial, which is a large trial to determine if the vaccine is effective and also safe. two of these started the trial on july 27th, and they're fully enrolled, ready to -- collecting a lot ofidate mauch and the projection i've made. i think i made it with you on "meet the press" some time ago is that some time in november, december, most likely the end of november, the beginning of december we'll know that a vaccine is safe and effective, and i'm cautiously optimistic that it will be. there will be doses that are already made and ready to go at the end of the year. but if you talk logistically about getting it to the major proportion of the population, that will be obviously several months into 2021. but vaccine doses will likely

start to be distributed on a priority basis, for example, to health care workers and those who are most vulnerable, it could be very much by the end of this year where, the beginning of the year. but when you talk about hundreds of millions of people you're really talking about several months into 2021. >> dr. anthony fauci, i always have more questions but i don't always have more time and neither do you. you're a pretty busy guy so thank you for spending a few minutes with me and our viewers today. >> thank you, chuck. good to be with you. >> i appreciate it. up next we're going to get voter reaction in a place where lifelong democrats turned to trump in 2016. how are they feeling now? 2016. how are they feeling now and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do things no other oven can, like flip away. the ninja foodi air fry oven, the oven that crisps and flips away. wean air force veteran made of doing what's right,.

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♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. woman: after covid, my hours got so we can't pay our bills. and now our family budget is gonna be hit hard with prop 15. the yes on 15 ads say it only raises taxes on big corporations. that's not true - we're all going to pay. $11 billion in new property taxes will get passed on to small businesses and farms. they'll raise prices... ...higher gas, health care, food...even day care. we can't make ends meet now. families can't afford 15. no on prop 15. they all endorse yes on prop 25. to end unfair, unjust,

discriminatory money bail. governor gavin newsom and van jones. they're voting yes on 25. the western center on law and poverty. the dolores huerta foundation. californians for safety and justice. and the california democratic party. they all agree that the size of your wallet shouldn't determine whether or not you're in jail. so, vote yes on prop 25. welcome back. nbc's tasha burns has been reporting in beaver county for the past few months, and this morning she caught up with voters to get their reaction to

last night's debates. dasha, what did you find, what did you hear? this is now trump country. is it still trump country? >> reporter: what's fascinating about what happened here in 2016 donald trump won by 19 points, right, a pretty big margin. but at that time there were about 20,000 more registered democrats in this county than there were republicans. in fact, this used to be a democratic strong hold. when the steel industry left, republicans started to get better and better margins herech in 2016 there were voters who voted for obama and said let's give this other guy a shot, and the biggest driver of that was job and the economy. a lot have pretty close ties to natural gas and fracking. there's a major shell fracking plant being built that's bringing thousands of jobs to this area, giving big boost to businesses here on main street. and a lot of folks i spoke with

this morning were struck by that conversation. many thought that was an area where the president did pretty well and biden has perhaps a bit more explaining to do. even the biden supporters i spoke with told me he needs to be much clearer about his plans and hammer home he does not plan to ban fracking. one thing that struck me with the line-up of voters this morning is the muddled party identity going on right now. i spoke to two lifelong democrats who voted for obama, then voted for trump and are planning to vote for him again. in fact, they've since reregistered as republicans. i also spoke to a republican of 40 years who is planning to vote for biden and has recently reregistered as a democrat. and then i spoke to a democrat who voted for trump in 2016 and is now voting for biden. i'm hearing this not just in beaver, but a lot of people i've been speaking to across the country where folks are not feeling at home with the parties they grew up with.

and it'll be interesting to see how that alignment shakes out where we're on the other end of this thing soon, chuck. >> it does. i have a feeling a lot that has to do their own community and which way their own community leans, and people start to go that direction, too. dasha burns on the ground for us. up next, we'll speak with a democratic candidate hoping to flip the seat in georgia in a race that could go well past election night. a race that could go well past election night or could things go a different way? i wanted to help protect myself. my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. -and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection

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welcome back. while we know it may take days perhaps a little longer to declare a winner in the presidential race this year, it could take until january to decide which party controls the senate. that's because two of the the m races are taking place in the same state, georgia. not only is one as special, but the other, if they do not get 50% plus one the race goes to a run off, 9/11 a general election. then, of course, the special election shows none of the three top contenders in recent polling. but in the other race david purdue, john osoff they're tied. they're well blow the 50% at least hold. other polls show them at tied at 47%. we may not know until weeks before election day. we have reached out to the purdue campaign and invited senator purdue to come on the

show and we have yet to hear back. mr. oseft, welcome back. welcome back with the nevermind we can debate if it is a good idea that the state of georgia faces runoffs. that is a debate that we will let political scientists have, but i imagine the last 11 days here, it is, is it your goal to get that 50% plus one now or get close enough for the runoff? >> we're aiming for outright victory, no doubt about it. and turnout in georgia is through the roof. black voters in particular being forced to wait in outrageous lines. what gives me so much confidence and what is so inspiring they are having obstacles in our way

and we're determined to cast our ballots, they're tired of the trump surface. we are focused on them reuniting and protecting health care for every family. >> it is interesting you use the phrase trump circus. do you think there is a trump oseft voter in georgia in and if so how are you trying to appeal for that voter? >> i welcome the support of voters across the spectrum, the influence of corporate money in washington. the way that so many are enriching themselves. david per due while he was insisting that covid-19 was no deadlier than the flew was busly

buying up stock of manufacturers of vaccines and dumped his casino shares. there is broad disgust with him. we are reaching out across to every re john of the state committed to health care costs, infrastructure, and corruption out of our political system. >> let me ask another way. how much does your campaign need a strong showing from joe biden? >> we have beenle really encouraged by the investments that they have made here. the bottom line is that we always need more resources for voter protection here. this is the most significant threat to victory. not receiving their mail in

ballots, we need people to resource our voter production efforts and if they want to we can electjon.com to keep access. >> do you think it is possible that if you lose by a small number that you will be pointing to these suppression efforts as the reason why? >> i'm confident that voters in georgia are determined to overcome the obstacles put in their way to vote. my first exposure to public service was working as a very, very young man for congressman john lewis who had his skull fractured when he marched for voting rights in the south. across the south, es essentially since the e vis ration of the voting rights act, that it is

not secure. we're doing everything in our power to protect voting rights here, they're encouraging them to vote early. there is statewide early saturday morning and the support of people across the country to help us power those voter protection efforts is really important. >> i want to ask you about this business, this is an organization that tries to infiltrate media organizations, democratic campaigns, trying to manufacture crisis or other stuff, what can you tell us about this infiltration and they claim they're going to be releasing some videos. what happened? >> well, it was pretty ham fisted. as i understand it they actually tried to lure a field organizer out on a date and secretly film it. they placed cold calls to my family members. they tried to pose as interns e-mailing staff members.

not very effective. not very impressive. pretty pathetic tactic this late in the campaign. i hope that senator david purdue will come out and denounce this kind ofceitful efforts from an organization that has been taking part in politicaltivity. >> the georgia aac, stay safe on the trail, thank you for coming on to share your views. >> appreciate you, chuck, thank you. before we go, this year's "meet the press" film festival is up and running and the digital show case is up and going. you don't need to join a service. you don't need to buy a streaming service to do it just check us out on nbc news.com. thank you all for being with us

this hour. we'll be back with more "meet the press daily" and on sunday "meet the press" we'll look at where the lace go with what will be nine days to go. msnbc's coverage with katy tur continues after this break. h kar continues after this break l new chevy trailblazer. here? nope. ♪ here. ♪ when the middle of nowhere, is somewhere. the all new chevy trailblazer. making life's journey, just better. such as high blood pressure,ve pdiabetes, and asthma.s this administration and senate republicans want to overturn laws requiring insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions.

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good afternoon. there are 11 days until november 3rd and the coronavirus is the top issue for voters. now it is clear that we're at the start of what public health officials could warn that could be our darkest winter yet. 8.5 million americans have been infected with covid-19. yesterday the united states reported more than 77,000 new confirmed cases. that is the highest number of ne