good morning. it is saturday, october the 24th. i'm ali velshi. we are ten days out from the most consequential election of our life times. the final debate is over. we're in the home stretch. this morning i implore each and every one of you who has not yet done so to get out and vote, do your civic duty. have your say in who leads our country either by mail, in person, do your part. let's take a look at theheadlin. new details from the "new york times" on big trump tax write-offs how the president's much touted charitable giving gamed the system. mr. trump did not have to reach into his wallet for most of that giving. the vast bulk of his charitable tax ductions, $119.3 million worth came from simply agreeing not to develop land in several cases after he had shelved

development plans. the records show that much of his charity has come when he was under duress, facing damage to his reputation or big tax bills in years of high income. interesting and relevant as that story is, the story that continues to dominate the headline this morning is this h the coronavirus pandemic. on friday, the united states set a record for new daily covid-19 cases. more than 79,000 new infections just one day after the previous record was set on thursday. that same day thursday at the final presidential debate, there was a stark contrast on display between how president trump and joe biden view this crisis. >> we're learning to live with it. we have no choice. we can't lock ourselves up in a basement like joe does. he has the -- he has the ability to lock himself up. i don't know, he's obviously made a lot of money someplace. >> he says we're, you know, we're learning to live with it. people are learning to die with it. you folks at home will have an empty chair at the kitchen table

this morning, that man or wife going to bed tonight and reaching over to try to touch their -- out of habit where their wife or husband was is gone. learning to live with it. come on, we're dying with it. >> on friday trump hit the campaign trail and he continued to down play and distort the crisis that is claiming hundreds of american lives every day. >> all he talks about is covid, covid, covid because they want to scare people, and we've done so well with it. now it's 99.8%. i mean, you look at what's going on and we're rounding the turn. we're rounding the corner. we're rounding the corner beautifully. >> categorically false. we're not rounding a corner unless hell is around the corner. we're facing back to back days of record high infections. more than 77,000 new infections per day, hospitalizations are on the rise in 38 states. hospitals in the midwest finding

themselves on the brink of capacity as the overall number of people hospitalized with coronavirus in the united states has risen 40% in the past month. this morning the total number of covid-19 cases in the united states has surpassed 8.5 million. the death toll has exceeded 225,000. as of friday evening, 12 states have added more cases in the past week than in any other seven-day stretch of the entire pandemic. joe biden laid out his own plan to fight covid on friday and called out trump for his lying and his failure to lead. >> last night we saw the president of the united states lie to the american people and repeatedly lie about the state of this pandemic. we saw him refuse to take responsibility for the crisis that should have been met with real presidential leadership. >> after hoesting rallies in

south florida and spending the night at his mar-a-lago estate in palm beach trump is reportedly heading to the polls this morning to cast his vote in person. according to the target smart count, over 47 million americans have already cast their votes. more americans have already voted early this year with ten days left to go than voted early in the entire 2016 election. we've reached one-third of the total vote turnout for the entire 2016 election already just through early voting, and seven states have already surpassed 50% of their total 2016 turnout. early voting so far is favoring democrats, but republicans are widely seen as more likely to show up in person on election day. former president barack obama is hitting the campaign trail for joe biden. he's turning out the vote. that's part of his agenda. >> we cannot leave any doubt in this election because you know the president's already said if

this is even close, i'm going to just make stuff up. he's already started to do it. so we can't have any doubt. we can't be complacent. i don't care about the polls. there were a whole bunch of polls last time. didn't work out because a whole bunch of folks stayed at home and got lazy and complacent. not this time. not in this election. not this time. >> meanwhile, republican efforts to suppress the vote continue in the key swing state of florida, republican governor and trump ally ron desantis sending out last minute guidance to local officials regarding the voting eligibility of former felons urging that they be removed from voter roles if they still owe court fines or fees. by another name that is a poll tax. in no other instant is your right to vote curtailed by money you owe the government.

this comes as trump has repeatedly sought to sow doubt on mail-in voting and the integrity of the election and encouraged supporters to show up at polling places where they might intimidate voters. one thing is for sure, donald trump is getting desperate as the clock ticks down. he's even threatened to fire his fbi director chris wray and attorney general barr for not formally investigating his opponent prior to the election. this is not what a healthy functioning democracy looks like, but we have a chance to get it back, and that chance comes in ten days. it is your duty. it is your right. do not rely on anyone else. get out and vote. now if possible. joining me now va knee ta gupta, former head of the justice department's civil rights division. she serves as the president and ceo on the leadership conference on civil and human rights and roland mar tin host and managing editor of roland martin unfiltered. he's the author of "the first:

president obama's road to the white house yo." president obama pointed out at a drive-in rally at philadelphia the other day that about 55% of americans vote in presidential elections and in elections that don't have a president running, the turnout tends to be lauer at the state and municipal levels. something is happening in harris county in texas. i want to read this to you, mother jones published this. harris county was able to harn necessary this backlash against suppression by taking aggressive steps at the local level to make it easier to vote. it increased its election budget from $4 million to $33 million in 2020, tripled the number of early voting locations, set up drive-through voting for the first time in texas history, converted sports arenas into polling sites and extended polling hours, even opening a 24-hour polling station starting next week for shift workers and essential workers. all this means that the voters have lots of options to turn their frustration at suppression

into votes. your take on this, sir? >> well, first and foremost, i'm from houston. that is harris county. that's what happens when you have chris hollins, who's a county clerk. that's what happens when you have democrats who have a majority on the county commission which actually funds voting. that's one of the reasons why you have that, that's also why in texas democrats are nine seats away from controlling the texas house. the real reason governor greg abbott really limited to one county mail drop box is because not biden and against trump, it's because he doesn't want democrat had s to take control the texas house. there's been an explosion in texas, 97% in travis county of folks are registered who are eligible because they've seen what happened, and this is also because republican governors have been recruiting people across the country, guess what

they also bring, employees who have a different perspective. that's also the reason why texas is changing, and so great work harris county, and that's why republicans in 2017 outlawed straight party voting because democrats were kicking their butt, and that's why they did not want straight ticket voting. you see how republicans want to depress turnout because they know if few people vote, they have a greater chance of winning. more people vote, greater chance of losing. that's why we've got to have fair elections in this country. >> so there are lotss of ways depress turnout, social media does it, the president does it by talking about fraud in the voting system. there's another one and it's straight up intimidation. last night on chris hayes, jenna griswo griswold, the secretary of state for colorado warned that in all states you're welcome to be a poll worker or, you know, register with the party to be an

observer but you actually can't just show up, watch voting, videotape it and carry a gun around intimidating people. the "new york times" reports that the trump campaign has been videotaping philadelphia voters while they deposit their ballots in drop boxes leading pennsylvania's attorney general to warn that the campaign's actions could amount to illegal voter intimidation. with ten days to go, what do we do about this? is this a lawsuit thing? is this an attorney general thing or is this a message to americans to say get out there and vote even if people are doing things that seem to be zie designed to intimidate you from doing so? >> it's all of it. this is a situation where the law is very clear. voter intimidation is absolutely against the law, regardless of what the president has tried to say, and i will say, state attorneys general, local election officials are on high alert for this type of thing and are not going to tolerate it. we've been talking to local election officials, local law enforcement that has been standing up saying everyone has

a right to vote. we are going to work hard to protect it. voter safe city is our number o priority this election season. i think voters need to have the confidence that they can go and vote early, vote as early as you can, it will relieve stress off the election system. there are very clear laws in place against voter intimidation, harassment of voters. you can't just show up, as you said, and pretend to be a poll watcher. there's training involved in that. so this moment is going to call on vigilance from everyone. if anyone sees any problem or experiences an intimidating situation, they should call the civil rights coalition hot line 866-our-vote or speak to a local election official. there's a lot of guardrails in place that our system has set up in no small part because of the history of voter intimidation of african-american voters for generations and our laws are robust. i will say local election officials are on high alert for this.

>> hey, ali, there's -- >> i will send that out, go ahead, roland. >> there's something very important that vanita can actually speak to. the republican party is no longer under a consent decree where they do not engage in this type of activity. to be perfectly honest, democrats got to also accept some of the blame. you can speak to this. they did not allow third-parties like your organization to be able to participate in that pla particular lawsuit, correct? >> yeah, that was absolutely the case. i think you're bringing up a really important point, and this is why local election officials are on high alert. for several decades, the republican party, actually the rnc was under a consent decree. this is going to be the first general election where that is not the case around voter intimidation, and a set of situations that happened in new jersey. i think the most important thing, though, right now is for voters to have confidence that they can cast their vote free from intimidation, that there are, you know, local election

officials on high alert. you know, the good news is as much as we've all been on high alert, things have been going relatively smoothly. it's really important that the media is detecting problems when they arise that local election officials are alerted to it. that 866-our-vote is a resource. voters need to have confidence in this election. there's been so much disinformation and spewed not only by folks at the local level but of course by the president, and we have to sift through and not get distracted and not lose focus on the thing that needs to happen right now. we are seeing historic turnout. i think today already 54 million americans have voted, and so they -- you know, we are -- the laws in place to protect against voter intimidation, and voters should go out there and vote. high voter turnout is the best inoculation. >> i was in north carolina on tuesday, guess what, there are groups that are set up to help people. they're out there watching the people who want to intimidate. i was in raleigh, north

carolina, greensboro, durham, and so there are organizations, nonpartisan groups who are saying they are watching and looking out for people to intimidate voters telling them you don't have to stop and talk to anyone. you don't have to show anything to them. you can just show them the hand and keep moving and so that's also important for people to understand. >> thank you for setting that up for me, roland, because i will be in north carolina in six hours talking to another group of voters as i've been doing every weekend. the carolinas themselves are just remarkably interesting stories in this election. two competitive senate races, african-americans coming out in numbers that we have not seen since barack obama. suburban voters getting to react to donald trump's warnings about all the people who are going to invade and wreck their property values. it will be interesting to watch. thanks to the two of you. vanita we'll get that phone number out. >> i can't reach mississippi from north carolina today. we'll put that number out there,

866-our-vote. vanita gupta, roland martin is the host and managing editor of roland martin unfiltered and the author of "the first: president barack obama's road to the white house." with ten days until election day, it is time to break out the big guns, namely former president barack obama. he is not pulling any punches when it comes to the president. >> the thing is this is not a reality show. this is reality, and the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously. (burke) every year you're with us, you get fifty dollars toward your home deductible. it's a policy perk for being a farmers customer. (customer) do i have to do anything? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) hmm, that is really something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. see ya. (kid) may i have a balloon, too?

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tonight in miami, president barack obama will hit the trail once again for his former vice president joe biden. obama's rejoined the fight as the closer for the biden campaign making an appearance at a socially distanced drive-in event at philly, kind of like a drive-in movie, instead of a screen you've got barack obama. obama gave his most forceful rebuke of the trump administration. he encouraged voters who didn't come out for hillary clinton in 2016 to get up and make their way to the polls. he offered his trademark, hope, a hopeful and inclusive vision of america with biden and kamala harris at the helm.

>> they actually care about every american including the ones that don't agree with them, and they're going to fight for you every day. they care about you, and they care about this democracy. they believe in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and that we shouldn't be making people wait in line for ten hours to cast their ballot. we should be making it easier for everybody to vote. >> obama notes the increasing difficulty american voters face when simply trying to cast a ballot. we are the only modern democracy that makes it harder, not eas r easier, for our citizens to vote, and right now the gop is continuing its assault trying to restrict voting through legal battles in states across the nation. no matter who you vote for, obama laid bare why the right to vote is so important. >> voting is about using the

power we have and pooling it together to get a government that's more concerned and more responsive and more focused on you and your lives and your children and your grandchildren and future generations. and the fact that we don't get 100% of what we want right away is not a good reason not to vote. it means we've got to vote and then get some change, and then vote some more and then get some more change, and then keep on voting until we get it right. >> obama implored people who have already voted themselves to make those closest to them also participate. >> if you've already voted, then you've got to help your friends and family make a plan to vote. take them with you if you vote early or if you vote in person on election day because this

election requires every single one of us to do our part. >> and every single one of us should make a plan to make sure your vote counts. please do it today. you can visit nbcnews.com/planyourvote. for voting rules in your state, registration and more so you have it easily. despite the president's repeated claim that the coronavirus is just going to disappear, the united states is experiencing some of the worst outbreaks in months. hospitals continue to struggle to keep up, and after months of losing patience, it never gets easier for the medical professionals. >> we have lost a few people, and it's been hard because we have cared for them for so long, and we truly do love them, and

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the mortality rate is down 85%. there are some spikes and surges in other places. they will soon be gone. we're rounding the turn. we're rounding the corner. it's going away. >> trump can't help himself. no matter how bad things are or what the scientists say or what the statistics are, he keeps repeating his outrageous false claim that the coronavirus is, quote, going away. in reality this country is seeing one of its worst coronavirus surges since the spread began. this week the united states crossed 225,000 deaths, and yesterday the country reported a record number of daily covid-19 cases, more than 79,000 new

cases in one day and 891 coronavirus related deaths. we're also seeing a swell of new covid patients in the midwest. it's pushing hospitals to the brink. the number of those hospitalized in the united states at once has hit 40,000 for the first time since august. in wisconsin, hospitals are approaching capacity. 90% of intensive care beds are full in some areas. a newly opened emergency field hospital admitted its first patient on wednesday. i want to go to my friend nbc's corey coffin in kansas city, kansas. how are the hospitals handling the new surge in covid? >> they're trying to do something we saw in new york at that first spike in the early days of the pandemic, which is starting to add as many beds as they can, borrow ventilators from areas that might not need them as much. hospitals in missouri report feeling overrun. they say they're nearly at

capacity as well, and in kansas, with the infection rate and the positivity rate for those tested at nearly 20%, the university of kansas health systems reports their highest covid-19 deaths since the pandemic began in october. so this is just taking such a massive toll on these health care workers. they describe this as feeling like it's a war with no end in sight. one of the biggest issues is coming out of these rural communities. of course we're here in kansas city, but around us on both sides, both states, we have these rural communities with these hot spots popping up. for example, in kansas in norton, we saw 62 residents, all of the residents at that facility with positivity rate. ten of those have passed away so f far, and in kansas we know the governor is trying to issue a bipartisan mask mandate at this point. >> cori, thank you for your reporting. cori coffin for us in kansas city, kansas. by the way, it didn't have to be this bad as cori is describing

it here in the united states. it wouldn't be this bad if we had a president who chose to lead, to follow the science, and to take responsibility and to fight for the lives of his fellow citizens. joe biden making that part of his closing argument. >> the united states is 4% of the entire world's population, yet we make up 20% of all the deaths worldwide. if this is a success, what's a failure look like? we're more than eight months into this crisis, and the president still doesn't have a plan. he's given up. he's quit on you. he's quit on your family. he's quit on america. >> a columbia university study estimates that the trump administration could have prevented 130,000 to 210,000 deaths in the united states if it had acted earlier and implemented further measures

against the virus. meanwhile, the president acknowledged in a new "60 minutes" interview airing tomorrow that he wants the supreme court to gut the affordable care act, once his nominee judge amy coney barrett is confirmed, which is set to happen on monday. gutting the aca, obamacare in the middle of a pandemic is one of the cruellest items on the president's wish list. it could knock 20 million americans off their health care plans overnight, not to mention ending pre-existing health care protections for untold millions more including more than 8 million americans who have contracted coronavirus and, hence, could be considered to have a pre-existing condition. trump also continues to claim that he's got a new health care plan, a claim that he's made for literally the last four years and never delivered on. >> what i would like to do is a much better health care, much better. we'll always protect people with pre-existing. so i'd like to terminate obamacare, come up with a brand new beautiful health care. >> he's been talking about this for a long time.

there is no -- he's never come up with a plan. i guess we're going to get the pre-existing condition plan at the same time we get the infrastructure plan. >> the infrastructure plan of course is something that donald trump kept announcing during his tenure. joining me now the secretary of the health and human services for the obama administration and the former governor of texas. good to see you again, thank you for being with us. there was a moment in that debate which caught my attention. you were one of the architects of obamacare so i know you'll understand this very well. donald trump keeps saying joe biden's plan is going to throw people off their employer sponsored health care plans. that's simply not true, and the public option that joe biden is proposing expanding donald trump calls socialized medicine. that's also not true. it's simply a competitor to other forms of insurance? >> that's right, ali. first, i have to just start with

the data on kansas that you just showed us. you know i'm from kansas, i'm sitting in kansas. norton, which is the town that your reporter talked about is my husband's hometown. what's happening here is tragic, and it is preventable, and we are having the partisan battle in kansas because we have a president who fails to lead, and you're absolutely right. it now is about health care and protecting people with pre-existing conditions and who's going to lose their plan. medicare right now has a government-run part of medicare, a fee for service, and there are also private insurers who offer the same benefits called medicare advantage. it's part of the package. every year consumers get to choose how they want their medicare benefits. if you're over 65 and you're in medicare, you have it. that's what the public option is kind of on the other side. so private insurers continue to

offer marketplace plans to people who don't have affordable coverage in their workplace, but there will be an additional option, which will be a medicare like choice where the cost will be significantly lower because the government can run plans at a cheaper rate than the private sector runs plans. >> i'll just interrupt you on that. donald trump doesn't make this distinction. the government can run plans at a cheaper rate than the private sector can. we're not talking about the government running medical care. we're not talking about -- >> that's right. >> -- the government owning and controlling. it's insurance, it's coverage. >> it's the administrative costs can come way down. medicare runs a benefit package that costs somewhere between 2 and 3% of the overall cost of the plan. most private insurance companies are having administrative costs that are somewhere in the 10 to 15% range, so offering exactly the same benefits delivered by the same doctors, the same

hospitals, the same drug companies buying your prescriptions at your local pharmacy, we're talking about who's paying the bills, who's running the administration. that makes plans a lot cheaper. that's what was part of the original affordable care actm. t it couldn't get through the senate so it was dropped. joe biden would like to give consumers a public option. no one loses their employer-based coverage. this has always been for people who don't have affordable employer-based coverage or no coverage at all. that's what the affordable care act was designed to do. it's what it still will be designed to do. >> i want to play for you something that barack obama said the other day about the pandemic plan that your administration, that his administration had developed. let's listen. >> we literally left this white house a pandemic playbook that would have shown them how to respond before the virus reached

our shores. they probably used it to, i don't know, prop up a wobbly table somewhere. we don't know where that pl playbook went. >> barack obama's right, it literally disappeared. there is no plan. there was a plan that said something about it's going to go away in 15 days. there was talk about reopening the country around april. donald trump has not attended a white house coronavirus task meeting in months according to reports. so not only is there not a plan, there's no -- there's no sense of urgency from donald trump on this one. he just keeps on saying it's going away. >> well, we've had a president who has been lying to us since february. he admitted that he lied to the american public to make us feel better, to not panic everybody. i got to tell you, people are panicking at this point because there is so much uncertainty. there is so much disease. we have hit a high water mark in the number of cases identified,

about 80,000 yesterday, which was the highest ever. we're back to about a thousand deaths a day, and this is now hitting in rural areas like my own state of kansas where the hospital capacity is not there and the number of health care providers are not there to deal with these cases. this isn't going away. we don't have a plan. barack obama and joe biden had two pandemics, one was h1n1 in the '09, early 2010, and the second was ebola, which could have been devastating, and yet, the united states acted very quickly, built an office of pandemic response in the white house, had national security folks dealing with health care, had cdc representatives all over the world including in china, and the trump administration has dismantled all of that and never put anything in place. ari, it's like his health care

plan. he says he knows what's happening with the pandemic p he keeps promising he has a health care plan. there is no pandemic plan, and there is absolutely no health care plan. >> yeah. about seven of my producers have texted me again. you and i have talked for years, governor, i don't really know why i keep on saying you were the former governor -- it doesn't border texas. i don't really understand what the problem is. at least if i said missouri, one could argue that kansas city, a big part of it is in missouri. that actually makes sense. texas makes zero sense whatsoever, but you are kind to forgive me every time i do it and return to my show. >> you're just going to have -- to come visit me in kansas. >> i absolutely will, and i will make sure that it is, in fact, kansas, i won't be calling you from houston saying where are you? >> kathleen se beal yus is the former governor of kansas and the former secretary of health and human services in the obama administration.

like my producers put kansas in capital letters in the prompter for me. when i tell you to get out there and vote, i am not only talking about the presidential race, i'm talking about up and down the ballot, house, senate, local, those state races. they're all as important. coming up next, senator gary peters joins me to talk about his tight re-election fight in the state of michigan. so we took our worst vice, and turned it into the dna for a better system. we created bionic and put the word out with godaddy. what will you change? make the world you want. the rx crafted by lexus. lease the 2020 rx350 for $409 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. lease the 2020 rx350 for $409 a month for 36 months. i will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night

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a senate race that at first seemed to be safely democratic is now considered one of the battleground races that could help decide the balance of power in the senate. polling this month has shown the michigan senate race between incumbent democrat gary peters and republican challenger john james has narrowed. the latest polling average shows peters ahead of the republican army vet by just five points in the state. senator peters' campaign looks to bring this race home for democrats this week. he took a note from joe biden's

playbook enlisting president barack obama to seal the deal. >> when you're president, you learn real fast who has your back, and in michigan that was always gary peters. gary was there every step of the way helping save the auto industry, protecting the great lakes, covering pre-existing conditions. today the progress we made together is understood attack, but gary peters is someone i trust to protect it. >> senator gary peters joins me now. he's the ranking member on the senate homeland security committee and just to show my producers and my audience that i'm not completely out of it, he is actually a senator from the state of michigan, no neighboring states and not texas. senator, good to talk to you, you and i have had several opportunities to talk. a lot of it's had to do with the postal service. some of it when i was in michigan a couple of weeks ago, it had to do with the threat to your governor. we haven't talked about your race all that much. what's going on? >> well, certainly as you mentioned this is a competitive race. michigan is a battleground state

absolutely critical in the presidential race. in fact, we've got president trump coming back again to michigan here in the next day or two campaigning very, very heavily. and in my race, the republicans are pouring money against me with negative, nasty, false ads, mitch mcconnell and his super pac and other republican billionaires just in the last two or three weeks have put about $20 million against me. i also have another superpac betsy devos's family has started a super pac just against me. they've put in millions of dollars as well. it's a massive attempt to try to take this state. as you know, we have a very real shot to take the majority in the senate, but it's narrow, and if we lose michigan, that gets a whole lot more complicated, and the fact that donald trump is still in here campaigning, vice president pence is in here campaigning. we'll have our presidential campaigns, michigan is a battleground. we have to remember where the polls are right now similar to

where hillary clinton was and we know that michigan's a complicated place. that we've got to run right through the tape and given the massive amount of money the republicans are pouring against me right now, we definitely have a real race on our hands. we're going to run hard. we're going to win, but it's going to take us all coming together. >> you are an industrial state. you are a state that relies on trade a great deal. these are appeals that donald trump has made. and he actually made them relatively successfully in a number of mid western states, industrial states in the last election. the idea that he would somehow take care of the forgotten men and women. a lot of those people live in your state. you are still a hearty industrial state. there are a lot of people who want some of the old industries to come back. how do you argue that point, particularly given donald trump's trade wars and the fact that promises he made to people in the upper midwest haven't

come true. that's why we need new leadership. vice president understands the manufacturing sector. we remember very vividly the last major crisis we had here in the country and in michigan, the financial cry which was a significant threat to the auto industry. the auto industry could have occurred in america and it was president obama and vice president biden who stepped up and said we will invest in american workers. during that time, donald trump was saying let detroit go bankrupt. he just said let's move on. you had vice president pence voting against the auto rescue. they actually voted against the program that saved the auto industry in the united states and saved it for michigan. it would have been catastrophic had we lost general motors and chrysler here in michigan. joe biden was there for workers. he has a comprehensive manufacturing plan. the national institute of manufacturing which will focus this country on manufacturing

similar to some of our competitors that do that very successfully, think of the south koreans and the germans. we need to have that kind of policy here in this country to make sure that we create, grow manufacturing jobs, and understand these are great paying middle class jobs that then go throughout the economy. we need to make that a central focus. the shallow rhetoric of my opponent, and the shallow rhetoric of the president are not going to cut it. we need meaningful action. >> well, after the election i would love to have a really meaningful conversation with you on different examples we can use for manufacturing because the ones you cite, south korea and germany, they incorporate the idea of workers and owners. they incorporate the idea of modern technology and automation and computer ization in keeping jobs and advancing skiming skil. good to see you, thank you for joining us, senator gary peters, the democratic senator from michigan. according to the sentencing

project, more than 5 million americans won't be able to vote this year because they have felonies on their records. should that be a barrier against one of america's most important rights? coming up next, how activists in florida are seeking to correct what some call out one of the greater civil rights injustices of our time. and the veterans that never quit on their team. when being a fan gets tough, and stretching your budget gets even tougher... ...our agents put in the time and legwork for you, ...so saving on auto insurance is easy. because saving a little extra goes a long way. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. how can i change things where io live?like me in government? change begins with a question. so citi foundation is supporting girl scouts as they empower young leaders through civic education to help create a better tomorrow.

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as tens of millions of americans head to the polls or to their mailboxes or to a ballot casting box to cast their votes in one of the most pivotal elections of our lifetime, i want to tell you about a specific group of floridians who are facing a unique kind of disenfranchiseme disenfranchisement, former felons. in 2018 florida voters passed an amendment to the state's constitution giving former felons the right to vote. the amendment passed with overwhelming support, and it finally gave a voice to the politically voiceless. the working assumption is that they had paid their debt to society and are set to resume their normal rights and responsibilities.

since then, florida governor ron desantis has worked to make it much harder for this segment of the population to vote or even to register to vote. and right now only about 67,000 of the 1.4 million former felons in the state have to vote. just this week desantis urged election officials in florida to rid the voting rolls of any felons who had outstanding balances from fines or kout fefee -- court fees. this is a major setback from most ex-cons. ainngel has been working to restore votes to former felons. >> i agree actions have consequences but in a democracy, the consequences should never be tampering with someone's right to vote. we often time think justice is a s synonym for punish and ment and

ends there. >> in an effort to build awareness and uplift these voices, the florida rights restoration coalition is holding an event this afternoon in orlando, florida, called free the vote, march to the polls. lebron james, john legend will be there. it will be topped by a performance by rapper and activist common. joining me is desmond mead, the organizer of today's event in orlando. desmond, what's the best argument for why we want former felons, many of whom may not have voted before they committed their crimes and throughout jail. why is it important that they vote? who is it for? for democracy? for their rehabilitation? what's it about? >> you know, first of all, thank you for having me on, ali. i think the argument for the importance of this have already been made. it was made with people dying on the battlefield shedding blood, it was made by our ancestors who

fought through state sanctioned violence and was hung and bitten by dogs and burned alive and sprayed with fire hoses. that argument has already been made. every american citizen deserves opportunity to have their voices heard and to make a determination who governs them. >> i want to show our viewers some numbers out of propublica about disenfranchised voters in florida. there were 31,400 convicted felons on the voting rolls. of all of them, 50% are black, 52% registered democrats, 22% registered republicans, 52% of white fell oons are registered republicans. it's not a given that if you register ex-felons they'ring e g

to be just democrats. they're participating members of society that anybody can make the case to. >> i'm glad you said that. sometimes people are asking me who is that going to help, democrats or republicans? i say the biggest winners are going to be those with felony convictions, that for the first time, especially in floridai, we'll have a significant impact of who governs the country. as of today we have over 140,000 returning citizens that are on the voter rolls ready to vote and we know 96% of them have made a strong commitment to showing up and voting this election. so criminal justice reform and issues that impact people like me will be at the forefront and we're going to be the biggest winners along with democracy. >> i agree with that. here's the thing, in florida where the governor has asked for people to be taken off the rolls

if they owe court debt. now, you can have an opinion about whether ex-felons should vote and you can have an opinion on how you should deal with outstanding court debt, but the idea of tying money owed to the government, for your right to vote, exists nowhere else in america. so if i owe a tax debt to the federal government, it doesn't take away my right to vote unless i'm convicted of a crime. >> you definitely don't lose the right to vote if you have student loan debt. at the end of the day, we feel no american citizen should be forced to choose between putting food on their table and voting. the access to the ballot box should be unencumbered and free. in addition to orlando, we'll have events in over 30 cities and in over 13 states and 27 cities across the nation where a returning citizen, former live incarcerated individuals will show up in response to, number

one, we're responding to let folks know that we don't scare easy. we will not be intimidated and we will overcome any obstacles to make sure that our voices are heard and we're responding to anyone that would try to stop us by showing up not only with ourselves but with our family members, with our communities. so across the country and across the state of florida, we're going to be showing the world that democracy would not be intimidated, will not be denied and we're bringing our friends and family with us. >> desmond, that should be the quote for the whole campaign, we don't scare easy, get out there, register and vote. desmond, thank you so much for what you're doing, president of the florida rights restoration coalition, the organizer of today's voting event in orlando. free the vote, march to the polls. we have a lot more news coming your. why does america make it so hard

for residents to vote? and valerie jarrett joins me as we head into the final election stretch. head into the final el stretch. it's still warm. ♪ thanks, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate. pay less, when you drive less. you've never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today.

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good morning. it is saturday, october 24th. i'm ali velshi. we're ten days from election day. over the last two days the united states set records for daily new cases of covid-19,

topping 77,000 on thursday and 79,000 yesterday, surpassing the records that were set in july. cases are rising in a whopping 75% of the country. more than 8.5 million americans have now been diagnosed with the disease and more than 225,000 americans have died. around 900 americans continue to die every day from covid-19. yesterday dr. anthony fauci revealed that the white house coronavirus task force meets on average once a week and that he hasn't spoken to president donald trump, quote, in a while. nbc news has learned that trump has not attended a white house coronavirus task force meeting in months and is not expected to do so in the final days before the election. that's the truth. now i present you with a bunch of lies. but i've been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what we've been able to do with the -- if you take a look at what we've done in terms of goggles and