life contributing to society, building a family, building a country, serving america. you deserve security. you deserve respect and peace of mind. >> the ad targeted at florida seniors from the group called "the really american political action committee." that's what takes us off the air tonight, and that is our broadcast for this back to work monday night as we start a new week together. one week to go until our presidential election. thank you so much for being here. on behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. over the course of the eight years that he was president, president barack obama had two of his nominees confirm today be justices of the united states supreme court. justice sonia sotomayor, who was sworn in in august 2009 and justice elena kagan, who was

sworn in in august 2010. neither justice sotomayor nor justice kagan was sworn in at the white house, though. they were both sworn in at the court, at the supreme court, as a gesture of respect for the independence of the judiciary, for the fact that a justice of the supreme court should never be primarily known for his or her association with the president who gave them their appointment. again, both elena kagan and sonia sotomayor sworn in at the court, not at the white house. the trump administration does not have those same sensitivities. in president trump's less than four years in office, mitch mcconnell has arranged for president trump to have two supreme court nominees confirmed before tonight and a third confirmed tonight. the vacancy created by the death of justice scalia happened during president obama's time in office but senator mcconnell wouldn't allow president obama

to fill that seat. he instead held it open until trump was there. that was the first opening. they then brokered the second opening, the retirement of justice kennedy to make another vacancy for trump to fill. and in both of those instances, justice gorsuch and justice kavanaugh, they were both sworn in at the white house, at lavish white house ceremonies overseen from inches away by the president himself. the president making sure he was in every shot, including the money shot of the hand on the bible and the other hand in the air. both gorsuch and kavanaugh sworn in at the white house at big, lavish events marked by the presence of the president and lots of chest-thumping from the all-republican crowds invited to gloat over it. well, this president has also had a third supreme court nomination engineered for him by senator mitch mcconnell after the death of justice ruth bader ginsburg even though it was very shortly before the election and mcconnell supposedly had a standard that there shouldn't be votes on new supreme court justices in election years. he nevertheless rushed to get

amy coney barrett in as a third trump nominee. and tonight as amy coney barrett was rushed through the process in lightning-fast, record time, nominated, forced through the confirmation process like a hot knife through butter, voted on tonight -- the vote was 52-48. only one republican senator siding with the democrats against her. it was all republican votes in favor of her. tonight following this vote, amy coney barrett will be sworn in naturally at the white house, presumably with donald trump hovering approximately one centimeter away because who are we kidding? this is not exactly meant to be a great signal of the independence and apolitical nature of the judiciary. the new justice will be sworn in eight days before the presidential election. will have her first day on the job at the court tomorrow. she'll have her ceremonial swearing in tonight at the white

house, and then they'll do an official swearing in tomorrow with chief justice john roberts. that means she'll be assuming her new seat on the court one week before the election that the guy who appointed her is expected to lose. by the time the election rolls around a week from tomorrow, we expect that trump's brand-new justice will get to rule on election procedures in multiple states where republicans are insisting that fewer votes be counted. at least two states have their election procedures queued up and teed up for the court immediately upon barrett getting there. within her first month on the court, she'll be ruling on whether to get rid of the affordable care act, which would throw tens of millions of americans off their health care. she has been outspoken in saying that she believes that previous rulings to uphold the constitutionality of the affordable care act were wrong. that's basically the equivalent of a new justice saying she will rule to strike down the

affordable care act. again, that will put millions of americans out of luck in terms of health insurance they currently have that they will lose because of that expected ruling. also within her first month at the court, barrett will be ruling on an important gay rights case. one of the things that didn't quite come up in her confirmation process is that she was on the board of a school that won't let kids go there if their mom or dad is gay. also a school that won't hire gay teachers. how do you think she's going to rule on the gay rights case? couldn't ask her about that in the confirmation process because she didn't disclose it to the senate, and then once it was disclosed in public reporting, there wasn't time to go back to it because they were rushing her through so fast so she'd be there in time for the election. we'll tell you judge barrett will also, by the end of this week, be participating in a supreme court decision about whether they're going to take up a mississippi case that is designed specifically to be the case that will overturn roe v. wade and make abortion illegal in this country.

they will be making a decision on that on friday. also within days, judge barrett will likely be participating in the decision as to whether or not state prosecutors get access to president trump's tax returns and financial records. barrett has refused to say if she will recuse from any of those things, but if tonight's live shots from the white house, if this -- if tonight's amy coney barrett/trump festival at the white house is any indication of how things are going to go, it the not like there's a lot of suspense as to whether or not she will recuse, whether or not she sees any distance between herself and the president who appointed her through a process absolutely engineered by senate republicans and by mitch mcconnell in particular to give this president three supreme court justices in less than four years. vice president mike pence said as recently as this weekend that he was going to be in the senate tonight.

look at the president walking out with judge barrett tonight. ah, judicial independence. vice president mike pence said he was going to be in the senate in person for the vote on barrett's nomination. this is remarkable. a live shot of the president walking out with judge barrett there. the vice president was going to be in the senate for the vote tonight, but ultimately changed his mind after five of vice president pence's closest aides including his chief of staff and his body man all tested positive for coronavirus in recent days. democratic senators begged vice president pence to please not show up in the senate chamber and put them all at risk. the white house is admitting that vice president pence has been a close contact of his staffers who have tested positive. one of the positive cases, after all, is his body man, which means that's literally the staffer charged with being physically close to the vice president and carrying stuff for him and handing stuff to him. that's one of the guys who's positive. one of the other guys who's positive is the guy on the right side of this photo. do we have that picture?

doing the no-mask group man hug thing with pence backstage at the vice presidential debate. there we go. the guy on the right there. that's one of the other people who is an aide to vice president pence who has just tested positive. pence's chief of staff incidentally, who also has tested positive, he's on the left there. the white house admitting that vice president pence is a close contact of multiple people who have now tested positive, but he is not quarantining. they're insisting that the vice president is going to keep traveling, keep up his meeting schedule, keep up everything he's doing because they say he's essential, by which they do not mean that mike pence is secretly an icu nurse or even a grocery worker or even an emergency plumber. he's just this guy, breathing in the face of all the secret service agents and military aides and flight staff and junior staffers who have to attend to him personally while he stays out there despite the fact that everybody he works with just tested positive and none of them have been wearing masks all week long. that said, vice president pence did change his mind and he did not come to the senate chamber tonight for the vote on judge

barrett, which is nice given that the average age of a united states senator right now is just to the north of methuselah. asked about the vice president's plans to keep spreading this thing around as quickly as possible rather than quarantining, the white house chief of staff mark meadows told jake tapper at cnn this weekend that the white house did try to keep the outbreak in pence's office a secret. they tried to get away with not telling anybody about it but word leaked out. meadows defended sending pence out to a rally in florida on saturday and to another thing in north carolina on sunday and to another rally thing in minnesota today even though the vice president has just had close contact with all these people who have tested positive, including his closest staffers. yeah, why bother trying to stop the vice president himself from spreading this thing as far and wide as possible? white house chief of staff mark meadows explained that while the white house does want there to be a vaccine or treatment that ultimately helps people survive

covid, that's pretty much all they're interested in doing. he's not interested, the white house is not interested, and he says the u.s. government is not interested in preventing people from getting it in the first place. mark meadows saying this weekend remarkably, quote, we are not going to control the pandemic. quote, it's a contagious virus. there it is. you have been wondering why america's pandemic management has produced this brilliant response that we're all trying to live through now. now at least the white house is admitting it. for the first time ever this weekend, we hit 80,000-plus new cases in a single day. there are 40,000-plus americans in the hospital with covid right now. our case numbers still shooting for the moon. leana wen, who is the former baltimore health commissioner bottom-lined it today in "the washington post" in terms of the

implications of what the white house is now admitting. she said, quote, there it is. that's trump's plan, to accept our fate and surrender to the virus. cross our fingers and place all of our hopes on vaccines and therapies. in the meantime, live our lives as we did before. ignore the rising death count and let the virus rip through our communities. this approach, she says, explains so many of the trump administration's otherwise contradictory actions. why bother investing the resources to safely reopen schools if the goal isn't to prevent students and teachers from getting the coronavirus? why increase testing capacity if we're not going to use the information to help stop the spread so all that it will do to do more testing is make the administration look bad? why conduct contact tracing even for cases arising from the white house itself if we're not actually trying to contain the virus? the united states is about to enter a phase of exponential spread. infection rates will skyrocket. hospitals will once again be overwhelmed. death rates will climb. we have a narrow window to stop this tidal wave but we have just learned that our government is

unwilling to use that time. it's like learning a foreign enemy is planning an invasion that will kill hundreds of thousands of americans and our elected leaders know how to stop it, but they've simply decided not to. history will look back on this moment in disbelief and horror. i know i have been a broken record on this since the early part of this summer, but they really -- if you have been watching what they are doing and not listening to what they are saying, it has been clear. they really haven't been working on trying to keep americans from getting infected. i mean for months they have not been working on that. and the virus has therefore obliged by infecting millions of us. i mean 226,000 americans dead. let's see how high they can push this thing. i mean it took us january, february, march, and april, till the end of april, for the united states to hit 1 million infections in this country. last week we got nearly a half million new infections just in one week.

and the white house says, yeah, we're not even trying to stop this. it's contagious, it turns out. we're hoping that people who get it might not die, but that's basically as much as we're willing to do. hope you don't die. good luck getting health care. how's the hospitals where you're living? that's the plan. that devastating admission from the white house actually made front-page news all over the country today. here's today's front page of the "orlando sentinel" in florida. quote, we're not going to control the pandemic. then you see the subhead there. "trump chief of staff defends pence working amid infected staffers." here's the front page of the "sun journal" in new bern, north carolina. quote, aide says covid can't be controlled next to a picture of trump white house chief of staff mark meadows. all the way across the country, here's the front page of "the

seattle times" today. "pence staff ill. white house won't control the pandemic." then there's the subhead there, "trump says we're rounding the turn as cases surge with one week to election day." you can see the bigger headline on the front. there is a front-page profile of pulmonologist dr. vin gupta, who you may recognize. he's been on the air with us a lot helping us understand this pandemic and helping us on debate nights, fact-checking some of the president's lies about covid. here's "the washington post" front page today. "white house is again afflicted." then in all caps, "five in pence's orbit have virus." then you see the subhead there. meadows, white house chief of staff, says not going to control the pandemic. it's the same feeling on the front page of "the boston globe" today. "new outbreak roils campaign. pence's office hit. we're not going to control the virus, meadows says." it's not just the big papers, and it's not just national news. here's the "winona daily news" in winona, minnesota. what's driving the rural spike? here's the "milwaukee journal sentinel" in wisconsin.

contact tracers cannot keep up. here's the "grand forks herald" in north dakota. the front page there is the story of a local family where the son in that family almost died of acute kidney failure. 19 years old. he became suddenly and violently ill. his family brought him to the closest emergency room at the hospital in bismarck, north dakota, but there was no bed to put him in. they tried moving him while he was suddenly and violently ill, tried moving him to the other hospital in bismarck, but that hospital didn't have a bed for him either. it very nearly killed this kid. headline in the "grand forks herald" today on the front page is this quote from his mom. "he could have easily died in my home." teen's ordeal shows true cost of north dakota's strained hospitals. down in el paso today, same story in the making. covid-19 patients flood el paso hospitals. in el paso, texas, this weekend the county judge, the top elected official in el paso

county announced that all el paso area hospitals are filled to 100% capacity, all hospitals, all intensive care units. they're now opening an emergency field hospital at the el paso convention center. 50 beds, can expand to 100. they're bringing in dozens of federal emergency medical workers to staff extra beds in el paso. they're opening up the el paso children's hospital to adult patients. this afternoon the local army medical center, a defense department facility, the local army medical center is now accepting covid-19 patients from hospitals in the area too. so civilians being treated at the military hospital. they're instituting a curfew now in el paso, 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. only essential travel and travel for work allowed during those hours. they are trying to stop people from moving around too much. they're trying to slow down the spread. they're trying to buy the hospitals some time. you know, in terms of that crisis staffing being flown into el paso, utah's hospitals may need crisis staffing too. the state hospital association

in utah is now warning that they are heading toward rationing care in utah hospitals, warning that that means very stark, very dire decisions. they may have to start triaging older covid patients out of the icu to make room for younger one who's are more likely to live. they may have to essentially start giving up on older patients who need too much care because there aren't enough beds and enough staff to care for them. i mean even as utah's hospitals have filled up and the state has considered activating field hospitals to open up more beds, it turns out the beds really aren't the issue. the staffing shortages are so acute, it's not clear if beds alone are going to be any help. it's not technically an icu bed unless it is staffed by trained icu doctors and icu nurses, and there just aren't enough of those anymore in utah. i've been talking about some red states here. it's not just red states. massachusetts is bracing for what this graph is going to mean over the next few weeks.

this is the results of regular wastewater treatment -- excuse me -- wastewater testing at a water treatment plant that serves the greater boston area. when you test wastewater, it doesn't tell you exactly which individuals are infected. it just tells you for the whole population roughly how much of the population in that area is positive, whether they know it or not, whether they've been personally tested or not. the wastewater plants collect waste water from their catchment area. they test all the wastewater together and they did see how much the virus is rising in that population. look at how that graph is turning around. again, that is the greater boston area. that is very, very worrying. so case numbers spiking now, and hospitals filling up now means that hospitals in lots of places are likely to be in real crisis over the next several weeks. we know that the white house doesn't want to hear about it. the president tonight at a rally

once again saying, covid, covid, covid, covid, covid. that's all i ever hear about. we know the white house doesn't want to hear about it. we know from the admission from the white house chief of staff that they don't actually plan to do anything about it, right? it's fine. just hold still. let the vice president sneeze in your face. but in eight days, this election, which is well under way, will finally be coming to an end. more than 62 million americans have already cast their ballots. we're looking at like 150 million, 160 million people who are going to vote total in this election, right, based on what happened in 2016. over 60 million people have already cast their ballots and millions more americans are doing so every day. moments before amy coney barrett got that confirmation vote in the senate tonight, the existing conservative majority on the court ruled that wisconsin has to throw out any ballots that are postmarked by election day but arrive after that day. yeah, can't imagine why that would happen after what the trump administration has done to the postal service.

the court ruling tonight that wisconsin throws out ballots that haven't arrived by election day even if they were postmarked well before. for context, you should know that there were tens of thousands of ballots, like 80,000 ballots like that that were counted in the primary in wisconsin earlier this year, but not for the general election, not with trump on the ballot. conservatives on the supreme court are now changing the rules so no matter when you postmarked your ballot and put it in the mail in wisconsin, they won't count it if they get it after election day. and rulings like that from conservative justices and efforts like that by republicans around the country, that's in part why our fellow americans are lining up like you cannot believe to cast their votes in person. the lines are hours long

everywhere. it is ridiculous that this is what we have to go through to vote with or without a pandemic, right? it is ridiculous. it makes us look like a 19th century banana republic. but it is also inspiring seeing americans willing to put themselves through it to do it, and it is what we have to do to get our votes counted now. and in that context, let it be known as an act of great patriotism and civic virtue that there are those among us who are absolutely, positively dedicated to making sure that the millions of americans who are turning out to stand in line to get their ballots cast, there are patriots among us who are doing their damnedest to make sure that when we're lining up to vote, it might actually be kind of fun this year. there is not just bad news right now. there is a lot of bad news right now, but it is not just bad news. there is also the joy to the polls movement for one. we've got more on that coming up. stay with us. big night. 133 million americans have pre-existing conditions

such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma. this administration and senate republicans want to overturn laws requiring insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. they're rushing a lifetime appointment to the supreme court to change the law through the courts. 70% of americans want to keep protections for pre-existing conditions in place. tell our leaders in washingtn to stop playing games with our healthcare.

skip to cold relief fast. alka-seltzer plus power max gels. with 25% more concentrated power. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! working, parenting, problem solving. at new chapter vitamins we've been busy too... innovating, sourcing organic ingredients, testing them and fermenting. fermenting? yeah like kombucha or yogurt. and we formulate everything so your body can really truly absorb the natural goodness. that's what we do, so you can do you. new chapter wellness, well done.

in new york, early voting started just this weekend. people waited in line for two, three, four hours just to cast a vote. it is capital "s" stupid that we have allowed the voting process to get so screwed up in this country that it takes that much time and dedication and

sacrifice to cast a ballot. but it is capital "s" stupendous that we as citizens are also innovating some solutions to that mess as we speak. this was the scene outside one polling place in brooklyn, new york, this weekend. members of brooklyn united marching band and drum line bringing some much needed entertainment to voters waiting in those long, long lines. here was another drum line in pennsylvania. this was outside roxborough high school in philadelphia. ♪ people are doing this stuff all over and turning up in all sorts of different ways. in nevada, this was a huge group of latino voters parading on horseback to the polls. look at that. this was a latino voters for biden group mostly. you see a lot of them wearing -- they have the biden blankets and stuff on their horses. they were followed by a truck parade of people flying biden flags.

in florida, pop singer ariana grande sent hundreds of pizzas to florida voters during the first day of early voting. and, again, back in philly this weekend, we got one other amazing scene that got a bunch of national attention. voters showed us that while the six feet distance is needed for social distancing because of covid, six feet is also apparently, scientifically speaking, it's the exact amount of space you need to properly perform the cha cha slide. ♪ you cha cha with your right ♪ you cha cha with your left ♪

>> if you are wondering why we had to blur the guy who's a really good dancer, that guy in front, we had to blur his shirt. it's because his shirt features a short and to the point expletive followed by the word "2020." you can guess. and 2020 has been an abominably bad year but it is made a little less abominably bad by this sort of amazing joy and cheer being spread at the polling places. to that end, i should tell you the last video we showed you from philly was not a spontaneous one-off dance party that happened to just break out at the polling site. it was part of a project from a group called election defenders who describe themselves as a nonpartisan coalition to make sure voters are staying safe and healthy outside polling places across the country and also bringing them some joy. that polling place in philly

this weekend was actually the kickoff site for a campaign they are calling "joy to the polls," where they bring live music to voters who are stuck in line waiting to cast their ballots. the organizers say they're planning similar events at polling places all across the country on election day. joining us now is nelini stamp, who is campaign director for election defenders. she's a longtime organizer, also serves as director of strategy for the working families party. it's a real pleasure to have you here tonight. thanks for joining us to talk about this. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> i feel like the joy that you created at the polls was sort of not mimicked, but it also sort of manifest in vivid joy among people just covering it and learning about the fact that you're doing it. it sort of feels like the first good news story about our terrible voting system and about this incredibly fraught election that i think anybody's heard in a really long time. >> yeah.

i mean we shouldn't have to do this. voter suppression has run rampant in our communities for such a long time. people are waiting four hours, three hours on line, and they're been lots of reports that there is going to be militias or white supremacists out at polling places stations. so we at election defenders, which has been put together by the movement for black lives, the working families party, and a ton of other grassroots organizations, we're just figuring out how can we ensure that voters feel safe? so we've been training thousands of folks in deescalation and making sure that we're talking to local artists to put roving music concerts outside of polling places. but the bottom line is we shouldn't have to do this. we're going to, you know, play the cards that we've been dealt with and make sure that we can bring a little bit of joy in, you know, what has been a not so good year. >> yeah.

well, you know, i'm struck by the idea, by the concept too. it's just sort of beautiful that music itself, particularly dance music, is itself de-escalating. it's one thing to talk to people about like, if you've got hostile people or armed people or people trying to intimidate others from getting out there, how you can, as you say, do trainings to help people de-escalate those situations, imagining the worse. the idea that you could bring something positive basically to create an environment that is hostile to intimidation, that is hostile to escalatory tactics or to things that would make people feel scared in that environment. it just turns the whole thing on its head. it's going on offense in a way that feels both proactive and also protective. >> music sets a different tone. it is a different form of communication. dance has been a different form of communication for our communities for a really long time. so making sure that folks are just having a little bit of joy, and if you see a big flatbed truck as you saw ours on

saturday here in philadelphia just rolling through with flowers and tinsel, it sets just a different tone, and it shows you that we won't let anybody turn us around like the song, and that we're going to bring something, at least a little bit, for 20 minutes, which is how long our performances were, to people who are waiting in long lines. and that was just me right there dancing and making sure we're having some fun. >> nelini, tell me a little bit about where -- how many places you think you're going to be able to do this. is this going to be mostly keyed to election day itself or should people hope and expect to see this happening in places with long lines over the course of this next week as people get their last voting opportunities in? >> well, the last 24 hours has been amazing. people have been coming up to us, saying, can we put on "joy to the polls"? we have a tool kit for folks to

be able to do that, and we've been talking to artists in california. we've been planning concerts in pennsylvania for quite some time, and saturday was our launch. we're going to continue to do so on election day. we're also going to be in wisconsin, michigan, and other places across the country. i'm hoping to see this in all 50 states. >> joy to the polls. >> as well as hopefully puerto rico. but i'm just really excited that people are coming and are just asking for us to bring concerts to their communities. and if you can't get a roving concert with a flatbed truck, we are creating spotify playlists. so you go on spotify and do hashtag #joytothepolls. people can create their own playlists. so hopefully, rachel, if you're in, you should create a playlist for election day. so that we have folks like david cross, amber tamblyn, sophia bush, who have been creating playlists for election day for us so people can just bump it on their speakers. >> so if you can't get a flatbed truck and a live performance, you can at least get a sound bar to bluetooth to your phone to make your fellow line waiters have some joy to the polls.

nelini stamp, campaign distributor for election defenders, this is brilliant stuff. thank you so much for helping us understand. over the course of this week as this develops and you learn more about what people should expect and you want to tell us more about how this evolving, please come back. we'd love to have you back. >> thank you so much, rachel. really appreciate it. >> all right. we've got much more ahead here tonight. do stay with us. their own safelite story. has this couple was on a camping trip... ...when their windshield got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service you can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

and remember the moment that things, for one strange time in our lives, got very quiet. we worried over loved ones, over money, over our planet, and over takeout. let's remember this time when so many struggled to feel secure, and build a future where everyone can. because when the world seems like it's standing still... that's the perfect time for us to change it.

you know when your dog is itching for an outing... or itching for some cuddle time. but you may not know when he's itching for help... licking for help... or rubbing for help. if your dog does these frequently. they may be signs of an allergic skin condition that needs treatment. don't wait. talk to your veterinarian and learn more at itchingforhelp.com. ythey customize yours lcar insurance. so you only pay for what you need. wow. that will save me lots of money. this game's boring. only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. with this seal, this restaurant is committing to higher levels of cleanliness.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the expertise that helps keep hospitals clean, is helping keep businesses clean too. look for the ecolab science certified seal.

when it was president obama in the white house four years ago, they were singing a very, very, very unrecognizably different tune. >> the american people are about to weigh in on who's going to be the president, and that's the person, whoever that may be, who ought to be making this appointment. >> our side, meaning the republican side, believes very

strongly that the people deserve to be heard. >> there is a long tradition that you don't do this in an election year. we ought to make the 2016 election a referendum on the supreme court. >> it's about the principle, the principle being that it's up -- it's up to the american people in this next election, no matter who they choose. >> why would we squelch the voice of the people? why would we deny the voters a chance to weigh in on the makeup of the supreme court? >> it's the will of the american people and their voices that need to be heard. >> i think the president should allow the next president to appoint the justice to the supreme court. >> if there's a republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say lindsey graham said let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination, and you could use my words against me, and you'd be absolutely right. >> you'd be absolutely right. how comforted are you by being absolutely right and by forcing them to be such, such violent hypocrites?

i mean to have hypocrisy that egregious riding your soul for the rest of your life, it's hard to know how you'll ever stand up straight again. back in 2016, it was the will of the american people must be heard, and you don't do this in an election year, and it's about the principle. we have principles about these -- four years later, this time just eight days shy of the presidential election, while over 62 million americans have already voted in that election, those principles have been pureed before being shredded, before being laughed off the proverbial stage. the republican senate tonight confirming amy coney barrett 52-48 to grant her a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court even though they supposedly really, truly believe that a supreme court nomination shouldn't be put through anytime in an entire year before a presidential election. >> i want to be very clear with my republican colleagues. you may win this vote, and amy

coney barrett may become the next associate justice of the supreme court. but you will never, never get your credibility back. this republican majority confirmed a lifetime appointment on the eve of an election. a justice who will alter the lives and freedoms of the american people while they stood in line to vote. >> and while that is undoubtedly true, what senator schumer said this evening, judge barrett is at the white house for her unofficial swearing in as the court's ninth justice, cementing a 6-3 conservative majority on the court for the foreseeable future. democrats fought as hard as possible to stop this and republicans revealed themselves to be almost unimaginably hypocritical for forcing this to happen after they blocked president obama from putting someone on the court four years ago. but tonight it's happened. what do democrats do now? joining us now is a member of the senate judiciary committee,

delaware senator chris coons. senator coons, it's a real pleasure to have you here. thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks, rachel. it's been a tough night, and i'm grateful for a chance to be on this. >> so i know that democrats did everything they felt they could, including as many delaying tactics as they could extend to this process, up to and including working through this weekend, going into closed session, doing everything possible. but you said tonight on the senate floor, i fear we as a nation have not fully reckoned with the impact that a 6-3 conservative court will have on so many aspects of our lives. now that the process part of this is over and the hypocrisy part of this is over and this is done, what are your biggest concerns about the court as it will now be constituted with a justice barrett on its right flank? >> well, rachel, first justice barrett, within a couple of

weeks, is going to have a chance to weigh in on the things that president trump said he most wanted from her. overturning the affordable care act. that case is being heard just two weeks from tomorrow. protecting his taxes and shielding him from accountability. that case will be heard this month. and quite possibly handing him the election by refusing to count our votes in appeals to the supreme court that you were just discussing a few moments ago. so very quickly, right upfront, we'll see a couple of ways in which justice barrett, if she does sit and hear these things, may well change the arc of our history. but as i pointed out in my questioning of then-judge barrett on the judiciary committee, there's over 120 cases over recent years, over recent decades where justice ginsburg was in the majority and justice scalia in the minority of a 5-4 decision. and, rachel, they covered an incredible range of things from labor rights to lgbtq rights, from environmental protection to native american rights, to criminal defense issues, to the

ways in which consumers are protected. judge barrett, now justice barrett, convinced me from her writings and my questioning of her that she has a view of the law that's to the right of justice scalia. i thought it was powerfully and chillingly symbolic that she asked justice thomas to symbolically swear her in tonight on the steps of the white house, treating the white house has a soundstage for the latest episode of the trump reality tv show "re-election theater" because it's justice thomas, the farthest right justice, who has repeatedly said, we should look back and reconsider all sorts of cases. something like, for example, obergefell that millions of americans have rested their lives on and have moved forward in reliance upon to cases decades ago like griswold v. connecticut that i asked her about and she wouldn't answer that is the foundation of privacy law.

rachel, i'm really worried about just how much this will mean in ways we are just now beginning to confront. >> at this point in the process, senator coons, as you say, difficult night for you and your colleagues in the senate, who did try to do everything possible to stop this from happening. what do you say tonight to democrats and, i think, liberals and centrists across the country who are enraged by what has happened here? president obama being denied the opportunity to appoint a nominee to the court even when he picked somebody quite moderate, specifically as a way to try to appeal to republicans and their sense of fair play. mitch mcconnell essentially engineering three vacancies on this court for president trump to fill and the kinds of radical transformation that's ahead. you said tonight that republicans are walking over a dangerous precipice. what do you say to americans who want some kind of retribution or want to try to even this out

somehow given what the republicans have done? >> first, rachel, more than anything else, get up and go out and vote because before we have a chance to talk about anything else, joe biden and kamala harris have to win this presidential/vice presidential election by a clear and big margin. if it is razor thin, some of the ways in which they're going to gain it out may allow the republicans through this new conservative majority to still steal this election. so before anything else, go out and vote. and if you're in a state where frankly it's not going to determine the presidential election or the new senate majority, call your friends. call your classmates. email or text. do the thing you've been meaning to do but haven't quite gotten

around to. reach out to that friend you think might stay home from the polls or try and help persuade that family member who you think in your gut might just consider voting for trump again. do that first. and then second, we've got to have a wide-open conversation about how do we rebalance our courts. yes, the two supreme court cases that have been stolen where these processes that are wildly hypocritical have been used to jam through partisan nominees, but we've got to look at our federal courts as a whole, rachel, because we've seen hundreds of conservative judges put on circuit courts and district courts all over this country in the last four years, in many cases, too young, too unqualified, and too far right to be allowed to sit peaceably without our re-examining the process, the results, and the consequences. >> delaware u.s. senator chris coons. sir, i know this is just a remarkable time for a lot of different reasons, but thank you for taking time to help us explain this all tonight. thank you so much, sir. >> thank you, rachel. >> all right. i'll tell you one of the things that the democratic leader chuck schumer said on the floor of the

senate tonight was the next time the american people give democrats a majority in this chamber, meaning the senate. you -- meaning you republicans -- will have forfeited the right to tell us how to run that majority. what senator coons is talking about there in terms of rebalancing the courts is what democrats are talking about, and they've tried to demonize this issue in the presidential race calling it court packing and all of these other things. but over the past eight years, mitch mcconnell in particular and the republicans in the senate in general have embarked on a radical transformation of the judiciary. and they did it through cutthroat tactics and radical, radical hypocrisy. if democrats just decide they're going to live with those consequences and not fight fire with fire, they're essentially disarming themselves in politics and letting mcconnell's way run things for republicans and not for the other side. i think that when you let the -- when you force the pendulum that far to one side, it comes back, and anybody who is not expecting

that once there's a democratic senate majority and a democrat in the white house is kidding themselves. it's coming. more news ahead. stay with us. election... (fisherman vo) how do i register to vote? hmm!.. hmm!.. hmm!.. (woman on porch vo) can we vote by mail here? (grandma vo) you'll be safe, right? (daughter vo) yes! (four girls vo) the polls! voted! (grandma vo) go out and vote! it's so important! (man at poll vo) woo! (grandma vo) it's the most important thing you can do! (vo) jack was one of six million pein need of a home.ers he found it in a boy with special needs,

who also needed him. as part of our love promise, subaru and our retailers host adoption events and have donated 28 million dollars to support local animal shelters. we're proud to have helped over 230,000 pets so far... changing the lives of dogs like jack, and the families who adopt them. subaru. more than a car company.

this is a rare thing. this is the kind of thing we thought would happen a lot more in this administration but it almost never has. this is letter dated today to president trump's director of personnel. it says, quote, mr. mcinty this is to inform you effective immediately i here by tender my resignation as member and chair of the federal salary council. i do so with great regret. however after seeing executive order issued by the president october 21st i was concluded as a matter of conscience i can no longer serve him or his administration. as a matter of conscience. this letter is a from a man named ronald sanders, dr. ronald sanders who until today was

president trump's hand picked chair of something called the federal salary council. now, ronald sanders is not a household name. you may not be familiar with the workers of the federal salary council. you are not alone, but dr. sanders says he can't abide what this new trump executive order would do to federal workers, and he explains why. he says, quote, the executive order is nothing more than a smoke screen for what is careerically an attempt to acquire those who advise the president or failure of that -- i simply cannot be part of an administration that seeks to do so, to replace opolitical expertise with political obeisance. they take an oath to preserve and protect our constitution and the rule of law not to be loyal to a particular president or administration. accordingly please accept my resignation. i thank the president for the opportunity to serve these almost three years but i cannot in good conscience continue to

do so. sincerely dr. ronald sanders. you know, for all of the high level resignations from the trump administration over this term and, boy, have there been a lot of them, this today from dr. ronald sanders at the federal salary council, this is one of the only pure examples we have got of a trump appointee resigning from the government, "a," for a principle reason and "b," while saying exactly what that principle reason is at the time, why he's stepping down in protest of a terrible action by the president. that is so bad it necessitates the resignation of people who cannot in good conscience stomach it. i mean, there are a plenty of ex-trump officials who quietly shrunk away and later let us know how bad they felt on what they saw inside. and some wrote books about how they secretly disagreed with donald trump. if you want to sound the alarm in a useful way, if you want to

maximize the civic impact of what you're doing, if you want to sound the alarm -- even a president you might like, a president has appointed you to a job you love, if a president has done something very bad that is something worth quitting over, not only do you quit but you say why. you say why it is you're quitting and you do it and you let people know. this is the way that you do it. bravo, dr. ronald sanders. a very, very rare trump administration profile in courage. bravo. n courage. bravo. such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma. this administration and senate republicans want to overturn laws requiring insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. they're rushing a lifetime appointment to the supreme court to change the law through the courts. 70% of americans want to keep protections for pre-existing conditions in place. tell our leaders in washingtn to stop playing games with our healthcare.

♪ i feel good ♪ i knew that i would, now ♪ i feel good ♪ get a dozen double crunch shrimp for one dollar with any steak entrée. only at applebee's.

frnext time try bounce wrinkleut ofguard dryer sheets.? with any steak entrée. the world's first mega sheet with 3x more wrinkle relaxers. look at the difference of these two shirts... the wrinkle guard shirt has less wrinkles and static, and more softness and freshness. to tame wrinkles on the go use bounce 3in1 rapid touch up spray. bounce out wrinkles with bounce wrinkle guard dryer sheets and touch up spray! both, with a money back guarantee. >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story. this couple was on a camping trip... ...when their windshield got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service you can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

he got mad and walked out of the interview. he thought the questions were too tough. too tough? question like, what would you like to do in your second term? then it's our job to make sure he doesn't get a second term. >> president obama on the campaign trail for biden this weekend. that was in miami. president obama will be back in florida again tomorrow in orlando. tomorrow biden, himself, will head to georgia. state democrats haven't won a presidential election since 1996. kamala harris is going to be heading to texas on friday. no democratic vp candidate has campaigned in texas since the 1980s. things are weird. buckle up. eight days left. that's going to do it for us tonight. see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel.