if it's tuesday, it's one week to go. and the president is still playing defense. blitzing the trail with five rallies in two dairys all in ple he's won four years ago and must win again. virus cases are going up. hospitalizations are climbing. and the senate has left town after confirming judge barrett which means any hope for emergency relief package before the election have gone from slim to none. in the battle for balance, a setback for democrats at the supreme court. they won't allow late ballots to be counted in the crucially important battleground state of wisconsin. ♪ welcome to tuesday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd. seven days. we're just seven days until the election. roughly 60 million votes have

already been cast. and the president's chances of pulling off another upset victory appear to be dwindling. just take a look at our new nbc news battleground map. even if the president runs the table on every one of the toss-up states we'd still have biden with a slim win. that should give you a sense of how narrow a path the president has to 270 electoral votes for re-election and has to flip some state he hasn't led in, in months. yes, he pulled the rabbit out of the hat four years ago. but that was a time when we incorrectly made it a referendum on trump when it was a referendum on hillary clinton. this time, biden is in a stronger position and local and national polls than clinton was. clinton's support in the national polling averages had actually dropped to just a few points with one week to go. right now biden leads by eight. and the changes we've made to our battleground map don't signal much strength for trump

at the moment with the caveat that things can always change in a moment's notice. based on polling, our conversations with democratic and republican strategists, polling we've seen privately but haven't been able to report publicly, we've moved texas to the toss-up almost from lean republican and arizona. if i could come up with a column for toss-up between arizona and tex ai'd put them in that range right now. they'll be extraordinarily close but the candidate leading, it's hard for me to envision them losing. biden in arizona, trump in texas. we'll see. the president's schedule signals his campaign knows the dire position they're. today and tomorrow he's holding five rallies in places he won four years ago. he's not on offense anywhere. and he has to win again. but they are all leaning biden right now. michigan, wisconsin and nebraska's 2nd congressional district. biden is campaigning today in georgia, which democrats haven't won since bill clinton and the ross perot split helped him in

1992. then he's going to hit florida, iowa, wisconsin and michigan. biden is scheduled to speak in warm springs, georgia, later this hour. we'll have more on that in a moment. warm springs made famous by fdr. you get the idea of what the theme of joe biden's remarks are going to be. healing. let's start with shannon pettypiece following the trump campaign in lansing, michigan. mike memoli following biden in georgia and with us to break down the battleground map is the nbc news senior political editor and my colleague mark murray. shannon, let me start with you in michigan. we start there, the president's campaign manager two weeks ago, essentially had written off both much and wisconsin as paths to 270. and yet they are going there anyway because it shows you they don't really have any other paths. >> well, they're on defense all over the place. i'm sorry, chuck. ted nugent is behind me doing a rendition of the national anthem. >> michigan's own.

>> not sure how much of this you can hear. but the campaign knows that they cannot win or they can't get to re-election without winning michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. they can lose two of those, but they can't lose all three. and they are in a battle for every last electoral vote at this point. the president is going to nebraska after this. he is fighting for one electoral vote in the omaha congressional district. and that's because his campaign believes there's a scenario where this election could be decided by one electoral vote. for instance, the president holds everything he won in 2016 but loses michigan, wisconsin and arizona. that's how close they think it could come. >> no, it does, and ted nugent, michigan's own, i guess it's appropriate he's at that rally. shannon, i won't make you scream in a mask over that for much longer. let me move to mike memoli. mike, warm springs, georgia.

i'll tell you. it was fascinating. i asked this to kate bedingfield on sunday. the last week of the campaign, four years ago, the clinton campaign said, hey, we're going to expand the map to georgia and arizona. and the biden campaign has said they're not going to get ahead of themselves and yet they're in georgia. they must really feel confident about georgia. >> yeah, chuck. first things first. you remember the day that the clinton campaign announced four years ago they were going to go to arizona, send the candidate there? it was the day of the comey letter. obviously, everything changed from that day forward. if you look back to may when the biden campaign first laid out their vision of the general election battleground map, they had 17 states on it. actually 15 states and two congressional districts. and where did we see today they announced their closing television ads, 60-second spots were going to go on the air. 17 states. it's pretty significant, chuck.

typically when you shrink a battleground, the biden campaign is still competing in all 17. if anything, in terms of his travel, we've seen him backing off of states like colorado or virginia, a new hampshire that's at least not on his itinerary just yet. those are much more in the safe democratic column on that battleground map versus states like georgia, arizona and texas which will all see either the candidate for president or the candidate for vice president this week. the biden campaign feeling very confident that they have the message, they have the money, and they have the momentum heading into the final seven days of this race, chuck. >> well, look. it's where they travel, where they show up tells us a lot more about what numbers they're seeing than perhaps anything else. and the fact that we're seeing joe biden in georgia does say something. the fact we're going to see kamala harris in texas does say something. the fact the president is back in michigan and wisconsin tells you a lot there. thanks for getting us started,

mike and shannon. mark murray, let's break down the political map. the big two moves were texas and arizona. and as i sort of previewed, it is -- they are sort of, you could say they would be our -- on the lean tipping point or toss-up tipping point. arizona in particular does seem to have tightened. is this natural tightening or something happening? >> yeah, chuck, of course we ended up interviewing a lot of strategists who are watching all of these presidential battleground states. we have looked at the public polling, private polling. and i think the consensus is joe biden is ahead in arizona. it's not by much and certainly a little less than he's ahead in states like in pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. and so you're right. is there another kind of category we could have? our friend nathan gonzalez and his team end up using tilt -- maybe tilt would be a good word here like tilt biden, but arizona, you know, i think the

2018 senate result between kyrsten sinema and martha mcsally was very instructive. mcsally won by 2 1/2 points. that may be the democratic ceiling even with the growing suburbs of maricopa county. the latino voters in arizona that, you know, if you are ahead by two or three points where i think the consensus is, maybe it's not necessarily lean biden but it's certainly better than toss-up. >> let's talk about the three that he won last time that broke the blue wall. michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. right now we have all three. we have all three in a lean "d" category. using the arizona example you just made that, hey, at the end of the day let's remember that result. it was really close. probably where that state is headed. what's interesting on the 2018 midterms, mark, is that michigan and pennsylvania, there were

substantial victories for governor by the democrats there. not in wisconsin. does that mean we ought to be a little more on edge about wisconsin than maybe the polls show? >> chuck, i think we're all on edge right now with seven days to go. you're referring to tony evers' one to two-point win in wisconsin. wisconsin has been a highly polarized state over the last ten years. and where a lot of contests have gone between one and two points. but what i do think is happening, and again, we need to see if the next seven days back this up. joe biden is really overperforming with white voters. if you are overperforming with white voters, you're doing a whole lot better in places like pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan, certainly than hillary clinton did. it's a point we ended up making. you have to go back to barack obama in 2008 to see some of the performance, at least in the polls, that the democratic nominee has had with white voters. so i do think that is a big story that's happened.

one of it's why maybe the wisconsin, pennsylvania and michigans are different than the north carolinas and floridas that have so many more ejvang evangelical voters there. biden's strength is with white voters and that's why he's doing well in the midwest as of right now. >> let me bring up another issue here. and that is donald trump's 50% problem. what's interesting, if you look at our battleground map here, between the lean ds and lean rs. right now we have nothing in lean r. taking those two categories. in those dozen or so states, joe biden is over 50 in about half of them. according to the polling averages. but donald trump's not over 50 in any of them. one of the few places where i've seen him poll over 50 is basically kansas right now. and that's, you know, you could make a case maybe kansas belongs

in lean rather than likely. it's in that short of shaded area. but the president seems to have a fis50% problem in a lot of th states. >> to me it's really telling it's the challenger and not the incumbent that's at 50% or higher. that's one of the really big differences between 2016 and now is that you end up having a situation where joe biden is at 50% or higher. hillary clinton rarely was there. there were a few times right after "access hollywood" in october of 2016 when she was getting those national numbers in some of the states. but when you take joe biden at 50% or higher in a lot of these states, plus a lower third party number that we're all expecting, this time around, that really increases the percentage that it's actually president trump who is going to need to be at 49% or 50% to win a lot of these states. as you mentioned, it's very possible he gets there. we just haven't seen a lot of polling to back that up. >> let me -- shannon pettypiece,

there's one question i wanted to ask you and now that i think the anthem is over, you can hear me a little bit better. earlier this week, i thought the president had planned a campaign in both nevada and arizona. is he only going to overnight now in nevada and no longer really doing -- focused on that state or not? what's your understanding of their nevada strategy? >> yeah, i mean, he's mostly going there to be in campaign in arizona. he has a hotel in nevada so in the past we have seen him make west coast swings where he goes to arizona primarily, but stays in his hotel and makes a few stops there. there is -- it is kind of nevada's one of those states they throw in as a possibility. maybe that's sort of like democrats thinking maybe south carolina could go their way. but i think it's in the maybe column at this point. >> fair enough. and it does feel as if they de-emphasized it this week. shannon, mike and mark, thank

you for getting us started. joining me now to get their takes on what we've done with our battleground map, former adviser to barack obama and hillary clinton, and republican strategist matt gorman who spent quite a bit of time at the senate committee in the most recent election cycle. welcome to you both. are you at all nervous today that joe biden is in georgia and not in michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania this last week? do you have a little bit of nervousness considering what happened four years ago? >> there's no point in this election that i have not been nervous. there's just no moment i haven't been nervous. but, you know, i think even though it a bit pains me to think this, there's a substantial difference between where hillary was four years ago. you pointed it out. and being -- no one was hitting 50. you know, in the polls we have so many more people decide it. and there's another part of this

which is generally undecideds tend to go with the challenger. we can't assume that. but the few undecideds we have may well break in biden's favor given that trump is such a known quantity. so given the importance of the senate race there are some candidates who are really close to 50 makes it a really -- sort of a high return on investment to go to georgia today. >> it does feel as if both, in fact, i think the kamala harris trip to texas is as much about down ballot races, particularly the congressional races perhaps than that. it's a whole of party. matt, what do you make of the president's schedule right now which appears to be just all about finding a path of -- a viable path to 270? >> it seems to be somewhat sporadic because, you're right. he's putting resources, operatives into pennsylvania, heading to arizona. i will note he's not going to maricopa county, or around

tucson. he's not going to the suburbs. he's going out west where more of his base is to pump that up. but also last weekend, he's going to new hampshire as mike memoli said. safe democratic state. so it seems. he lost it in 2016, albeit narrowly. he was out in minnesota. so he seems to be trying to find different paths here, but i'm not really sure where i can define exactly where he sees it. and we talk about georgia. i was talking to somebody today who does a lot of races down there. and he told me that a lot of ways georgia is becoming the new virginia. that state is rapidly changing. and the three counties to watch for republicans are the atlanta suburbs, fulton county, cobb county and dekalb. fulton is the main one. that was a swing county. that's becoming more blue. dekalb, democrat stronghold, becoming even bluer. cobb, even as recent as 2017, even after hillary was a republican stronghold. that's becoming purple.

for senate or any statewide, you have to do well in fulton and really get your guys out in cobb and so we'll see if the president can do that or if biden is trying to cut into that. >> matt, i'm curious. i've not seen -- it does -- look, if i were the trump campaign, i guess i would be like, bill stepien once said it has to be a given that trump carries ohio, iowa and georgia. and yet, all three of those states, and i'll throw in texas there, i still feel like there's a harder ceiling on biden in texas than on these other three. but doesn't look like the -- it looks like the campaign is ba basically rolling the dice saying, if we're wasting a day campaigning in ohio, that's one less day we can win a voter in wisconsin. so they're doing that. how big of a mistake could that be? >> i don't know if it's a mistake. may be a necessity at this point. correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe hillary pulled out of ohio in large part by that point. i was the biggest skeptic on

texas for years n yeaand years years. they're wasting their time for democrats. look at how beto did statewide. they knocked off a ton of house members in the dallas/houston suburbs, the democrats did. i'm not sure it's a waste of time anymore. maybe they win it, maybe they don't. mike bloomberg is dumping $7 million, $8 million in texas. i can speak firsthand how much that affects a house race. he flipped a county last time. >> the bloomberg money, which there was some whining in june and july from democrats. where's the money? now all i'm hearing is oh, my god, the bloomberg money. it's having a huge impact in florida and matt just brought it up there. are you hearing and seeing similar anecdotes about the impact of the bloomberg money? >> i think there's two components to the bloomberg money. one is that it is -- that, you

know, it's vast and can really make a difference, particularly hopefully in the rio grande where it can help win latino voters. but the truth is bloomberg operation makes really tough calculations. they made smart calculations in 2018. they saw house races no one else saw and invested in them and those house democrats won. so the fact they're investing so heavily in this last week in ohio and texas says those races are competitive. they are really competitive. not just fake competitive. really competitive. and it means that there's a real possibility that joe biden could actually win a state like texas, which would be an unprecedented just challenge for the republican party to ever govern again if they lose that state. >> matt gorman, it feels like we're staring at that, if biden does sweep these battlegrounds, he may do it very narrowly.

so it may look a lot like in 2018, that happened. right? there were a lot of narrow wins for the democrats on the house level, but they were all pointing to one party. you think we're staring at the likelihood is that we'll see three to five-point races in a lot of these battleground races that will feel close but the accumulated result is oh, my goodness. what did we just see? >> i think you are right. i think in large part these tend to go the same way on the republican side in 2016 as it did with the senate and the presidency. and, look, i think we may know early. georgia, 7:00 p.m. polls close. they'll count their ballots fairly quick. florida, 7:00 p.m. local time they'll know. we'll know very early on what kind of night this is shaping up to be. that's what i would keep my eye on, too. >> and neera, if you're worried about pennsylvania election law, on election night, does that mean things didn't go well in other places? >> you know, i think there's

enough of an anxiety across florida. the truth is biden is running ahead in a lot of places. so he could actually lose pennsylvania and do pretty well if he gets georgia and arizona somehow. i mean, these states are divergent enough. but i think the fact that we're one week out and the map is as expansive as it is and is in places, like i just have to say, did not expect to be discussing georgia or texas at this point, you know, in 2020. a lot of democrats thought that was more for 2024, even 2028. so, you know, i think the truth is donald trump has hastened the rejuvenation of some elements of the democratic coalition. >> hey, i've got some democratic operatives that want to make the case for me that biden will win georgia before he wins florida. that's how bullish they are of georgia these days.

neera tanden, one election at a time. matt gorman, thank you both. much appreciated. right now, this is a live look at warm springs, georgia. joe biden is set to speak shortly. that's, of course, where fdr famously would recuperate from his polio issues. so once he begins, we'll bring you joe biden's remarks live. also ahead -- america is suffering through the worst of the coronavirus pandemic so far. period. not a first peak, second peak. worst yet. the new cases are rapidly rising. we'll talk with a top infectious disease expert next. try optum perks. it's a new way to save up to 80%. and everyone can do it. it's from optum, a health care company that's trusted by millions of people. you don't have to sign up for anything. just go to optumperks.com. and get a coupon to use at your pharmacy. that's it.

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welcome back. a week from election day and the coronavirus pandemic is the worst it's been in this country in terms of confirmed cases, period. and the numbers are grim. we're averaging more than 70,000 new coronavirus cases a day. averaging.

at least 44 states are seeing increasing cases. remember, we only have 50 of them. and there's more than 40,000 americans currently hospitalized from the virus. president trump is campaigning today in midwestern battleground states which is the hardest hit region in the country right now. vice president pence is also on the trail today and not in quarantine despite at least five of his associates, including his chief of staff testing positive for the coronavirus. millions of americans are still out of work, and the senate has adjourned until after the election, leaving any chance of coronavirus relief before election day pretty much gone. joining me is dr. william shaffer in, an infectious disease expert at vanderbilt university. dr. shaffner, where are we in this virus, and are we looking at halloween done, thanksgiving, stay at home, holidays, stay at home, i mean, are we -- is this what we're staring at for the next 2 1/2 months? >> chuck, we're in a bit of trouble with this coronavirus. it's increasing over most of the

states, as you just have said. the vast majority of them. hospitalizations have increased. and it's a lagging indicator, but down the road there will be an increase in deaths once again, and the weather is turning cooler which means that influenza is on the way to double our trouble. so it's going to be a rather grim kind of winter, we're afraid. i think that the holidays, halloween, thanksgiving and all the holidays toward the end of the year will conspire to be accelerator events unless families do this very, very thoughtfully, very carefully. our family is not having thanksgiving dinner together. we all are getting together for about an hour and a half. we'll wear our masks, social distancing. it will be a hug-free and a kiss-free zone. but we'll see each other but we have someone who has an underlying condition and some of us have gray hair so we're all

being respectful of each other. we need to take care. >> i've seen that you've had dr. fauci express and i think dr. gottlieb who was part of the fda for a bit under president trump, both of them have expressed support for a national mask mandate at this point. obviously that would be something that has to be implemented state by state, but is that a basically our only tool left before the vaccine at this point given that we're not going to invest in testing and contact tracing the way many people, like yourself, hoped we would? >> well, masks are absolutely fundamental. but, of course, it's a layered approach. masks, social distancing, good hand hygiene, avoiding large group activities. all of those things are very, very important. none of them is perfect, but if we put a series of them

together, we can really -- we've shown it. we can flatten this curve. and then we're waiting for a vaccine. we have our fingers crossed that we will have an effective and safe vaccine. it also will not be perfect. even after we vaccinate people because it's going to be a partially effective vaccine. that's what we anticipate. we'll still have to be wearing the masks. that information has not gotten out there yet. but if we put all these things together, over a sustained period of time, yes, this year is going to be dominated by covid. so will the beginning of next year. but toward the middle of the year, if we did those things together, we could go back to a semblance of normal. >> so as the president's chief of staff mark meadows just wrong by saying we can't control this pandemic? >> i think he is wrong, yes.

not only have we shown in intermittent fashion and the people in europe have shown, there are other country that have done better. new zealand, australia. the chinese have done much better, but they have all done this together in a very sustained fashion. surely we can do that. and then if we add the vaccine to that, we'll do even better. but there's no magic wand here. and this is a marathon, not a sprint, as we say. so we'll have to keep doing this in a sustained way. >> on the vaccine front, it does feel -- you see these stories about how halted trials, we had the eli lilly news as the most recent. would you describe the virus -- the vaccine news as two steps forward, one step back or one step forward, two steps back? >> oh, it's stepping forward step by step. this means that the system is

working. we all know that it's not a straight line to developing a vaccine. these are tricky biological products. so we have to do it carefully. and that shows how carefully we are doing it. and then when it's finally released and we know it's been very well vetted by the external advisory committee to the food and drug administration, if only the politicians would stand back and let the scientists and the public health people make the announcement, then we could start building up the trust. trust is central to the acceptance of this vaccine by the public. >> when you've seen the various disruptions and what you've studied from these vaccines, is it more and more likely we are looking at a vaccine that will be in that 50% to 70% protective area? which then translates to, you're wearing a mask all the time even

if you get vaccinated? >> that's absolutely correct. i'm so glad you've said that. let's just say, for the purposes of discussion, that we have a 70% effective vaccine. we would all be thrilled in public health. but that does mean for every ten people vaccinated, three people are unlikely to be completely protected, and we won't know who they are. so they, all vaccinated people and everyone else, will have to keep wearing a mask. it's another thing we can do, but it's not a magic wand, chuck. >> all we need is clear guidance on a national level, and i think a lot of people will do the right thing. but we know what the missing piece has been for eight months. dr. william schaffner from vanderbilt, always good to get your expertise. thank you, sir. >> thank you. we are waiting on joe biden. he'll be speaking in warm springs, georgia. we'll bring you those remarks

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and pickup contactless. cause it's safety first. right, tiny car? you wearing your seatbelt little man? subway. eat fresh. welcome back. while donald trump and joe biden are on the top of the ballot in every state this election, voters will be deciding on a number of initiatives. the dominant issue voters will be deciding on is how they vote in the future. 14 states have proposals on the ballot that address some type of

election reform. it includes three states, florida, colorado, and alabama, that will be deciding if only u.s. citizens can vote in future elections. two states, virginia and missouri, will be voting on redistricting plans, whether to take it away from legislature essentially and massachusetts and alaska, they are going to be voting on whether to add ranked choice voting. essentially instant run-off stuff so that you'd take anybody under 50%. that's what they do in maine and a handful of cities. for more on the ballot initiatives, i'm joined by reed wilson for "the hill." long time colleague of mine in the political world. mr. wilson, you have always had sort of looked at sort of governing within the laboratories of democracy. our 50 states. this has been your obsession for quite some time. what is going to be the big takeaway after these ballot initiatives go through this election? >> well, i think the takeaway is going to be this is going to become the new battle field. we've seen fights over election

administration in the courts, in state legislatures and now it's moving to the people. when, you know, legislatures won't do something that legislators -- that the popular citizens want, in a lot of these states, direct democracy is an option. so we see these states beginning to make changes on their own and going around the legislature. it's happened in states like maine. you mentioned ranked choice voting is an option there, and i think ranked choice voting is going to be the next big thing. we're likely to see that come up in ballot initiatives in places like california, washington, oregon, other states that tend to rely on ballot measures most frequently in the next few years. >> i'd throw in a lot of us are tired of these georgia senate run-offs. either lower the threshold to 45% or give us instant run-off voting. it does seem to be a waste of some folks' time. there's another -- it's interesting you bring up this battle. one of the bigger voter reform initiatives in florida was the

one that was going to basically allow ex-felons to be able to get their voting rights back. and even though the voters passed the initiative, if a legislature doesn't like it, they can still gum it up and take years for it to get implemented. the state of maine, they passed legalized marijuana, i think, four years ago, and still haven't figured out. i think only recently just implemented it. >> yeah, and even in a state like maine that passed medicaid expansion, you had governor paul lepa lepage, the republican, essentially delaying that for several years until he left office. the missouri example you talked about redistricting. that's a prime example of that. the voters passed a redistricting measure that would create an independent commission a few years ago. now the legislature has put this year's initiative on the ballot which would effectively repeal that. so a yes vote would give the power to draw those legislative lines back to the legislature. there's this constant tug and

pull between voters and the legislature and even between voters in the past and voters today. one of the things that california residents will vote on this year is a ballot measure to repeal a ban on affirmative action that passed about 20, 25 years ago. it looks likely that one is not going to succeed. so a failure there will maintain the ban on affirmative action. but, yeah, this is the joy of direct democracy. citizens don't even agree with themselves sometimes. >> let's talk about the vices. gambling, sports gambling and marijuana. are there any places that will defeat the legalization of those these days? or is every place where it's on the ballot, is it likely to pass now? >> you can imagine that the two legal marijuana initiatives in south dakota and mississippi. mississippi is only voting on medical. they might not pass just because they are more conservative

states. but then again, we've even seen marijuana measures pass in some pretty conservative states. i'm here in arizona right now. and we're going to see a legal marijuana measure pass here. the next front in the drug wars, it looks like, is going to be psychedelic mushrooms which are on the ballot in -- legalization or decriminalization is on the ballot in washington, d.c. and in oregon. and if that's -- if that's the next frontier, then, i will just stop there. >> just stop there. this stuff lives on youtube, brother. final question is this. there are a couple of arcane constitutional amendments that are on the ballot. in order to correct some wrongs. the one that stands out is alabama. tell me about it. >> so i'm calling these the anti-racist amendments. state constitutions are subserveient to the federal constitution which means they -- a lot of really antiquated language remains in some of

these state documents. alabama state constitution still requires segregated schools. segregated by race. so an alabama initiative would correct that and take that language out. in utah and nebraska, two states that still allow slavery as a punish for crimes, they'd take that out. obviously, those haven't been used for a hundred years, but the language is still there. and then the state of rhode island is going to change its formal name. the state of rhode island is technically the state of rhode island and providence plantations. voters will be asked to remove that reference to the providence plantations. so, yeah, voters get to clean up some of this language, especially the ones that are just so out of date. >> reed wilson, like i said, you throw yourself into this in ways that there should be more that do this, but you have your finger on the pulse of state governance in a way that not many people do in washington and part of it is, you're not in washington right now. that may be the reason your finger is on the pulse.

nice work. and thank you, sir. >> thanks, chuck. up next -- we're going to dig into the supreme court decision on the mail-in voting deadline in wis was. plus, we're still awaiting joe biden to take the stage in warm springs, georgia. when he does, we'll bring it to you so stick with us. we're at the movies and we need to silence our phone. who knows where that button is? i don't have silent. everyone does -- right up here. it happens to all of us. we buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. what i do is help new homeowners overcome this. what is that, an adjustable spanner? good choice, steve. okay, don't forget you're not assisting him. you hired him. if you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. who else reads books about submarines? my dad. yeah. oh, those are -- progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. look at that.

i'm jerome gage. i'm a full-time lyft driver. when this pandemic first started, i bought my own ppe because uber and lyft didn't provide it. these companies have been exploiting drivers like me for years. now prop 22 denies us basic rights like unemployment benefits and sick time. uber and lyft are billion-dollar companies, and they still won't let drivers get access to unemployment benefits. that's just wrong. tell uber and lyft to stop exploiting their drivers. vote no on prop 22. proposition 16 takes on discrimination. some women make as little as 42% of what a man makes. voting yes on prop 16 helps us fix that. it's supported by leaders like kamala harris and opposed by those who have always opposed equality.

we either fall from grace or we rise. together. proposition 16 provides equal opportunities, levelling the playing field for all of us. vote yes on prop 16. it would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on november 3rd instead of counting ballots for weeks which is totally inappropriate and i don't believe that that's by our laws. >> welcome back. that was president trump moments ago speaking to reporters as he left from michigan. he's once again suggesting the results of the election must be known on election night. again, most states don't have to certify their elections usually for three, four weeks after election day. so this makes no sense at all under the law. and it was stunning to see it

written by a supreme court justice on this. but still, as republicans gear up for a number of additional legal challenges on the issue of how this election is being administered. and with one week to go, there are now nine justices again on the supreme court. justice amy coney barrett took her judicial oath this morning after being confirmed by the senate and sworn in at the white house last night. and as we have been telling you is coming, joe biden is about to give his closing argument speech, if you will. this is the closing message from the joe biden campaign from warm springs, georgia. be sure to watch this speech through that eye. i believe he's going to get started. there he is walking up. warm springs made famous by fdr. so healing -- healing a country is expected to be the theme of these remarks. >> hello, hello, hello.

what a magnificent setting. it's hard when you drive in here not to think of the circumstances president roosevelt faced and how he overcame so much for so many. so good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> a few weeks ago, i spoke at gettysburg about the need to unite our nation. and today, i am here in warm springs because i want to talk about how we're going to heal our nation. over these past few months, there's been so much pain and so much suffering and so much loss in america. over 225,000 people have lost their lives to a virus. many of those lives lost in the cruelest way possible.

alone. alone. alone in a hospital room. alone in a nursing home. no family. no friends. no loved ones beside them in those final moments. and it haunts so many of the surviving families. families who were never given a chance to say good-bye. i and many of you know what loss feels like when you lose someone you love. you feel that deep black hole opening up in your chest and you feel like you're being swallowed into it. the tragic truth of our time is that covid has left a deep and lasting wound in this country. millions of americans have lost their jobs, and we see the empty storefronts and the shuttered businesses. the visible signs of lost hopes and broken dreams. but what we don't see is in all

those parents staring at the ceiling late at night wondering, how am i going to pay the mortgage? how am i going to pay for our rent? what are they going to do if one of my kids gets sick? now that i've lost my health insurance. growing up, like many of you, i watched my father struggle to find work. he made what i call the longest walk any parent can make up a short flight of stairs to his children's bedroom to tell a child, you can't play in that little league team anymore. you can't go back to the same school. we can't stay here, joey. we can't stay in scranton anymore. we have to move. there are good jobs in delaware. when i get one, i'll come back for you, your sister, your brother and your mom.

it's only 157 miles away, joey. my father came home every weekend for that year or more. but he always said when we finally got settled in delaware, he used to say, joey, a job job and all my friends would hear it as well. a job's a lot more than a paycheck. my sister heard it as well, valerie. he would say bitz your dignity, a job. it's about respect. it's about your place in the community. right now on this autumn afternoon, millions of americans all across this country feel they've lost all that. a season of protests has broken out all across the nation. some of it is senseless burning and looting and violence that can't be tolerated. but much of it is a cry for justice from a community that's long had a knee of injustice on

their neck. the names of george floyd, breonna taylor, jacob blake, will not soon be forgotten. not by me, not by us, and not by this country. they're going to inspire a new wave of justice in america. these are historic, painful crises. the insidious virus, the economic anguish, the systematic discrimination. and one of them could have rocked the nation, any one of them. yet we've been hit by all three at once. but if we're honest with ourselves, the pain striking at the heart of our country goes back months -- not months, but years. our politics for too long and have been mean and bitter and divisive. you can hear it now in the distance. we've stopped seeing dignity in one another.

we've stopped showing each other respect. too many among us spent more time shouting than listening. more time fighting than working together. more time demonizing and denigrating others than lifting them up. the divisions in our nation are getting wider, angry people are upset. anger and suspicion are growing and our wounds are getting deeper. many wonder, has it gone too far? have we past the point of no return? has the heart of this nation turned to stone? i don't think so. i refuse to believe it. i know this country. i know our people. and i know we can unite and heal this nation. warm springs is a good place to

talk about hope and healing. it's where franklin roosevelt came to, quote, use the therapeutic waters to rebuild himself. stricken by polio, the polio virus in 1921, he suffered from paralysis. like many other americans of those pre-vaccine decades, fdr longed to live an independent life. a life that wasn't defined by his illness. to him, and to so many others facing physical challenges, warm springs offered therapy for the body and, i might add, and the soul. but it offered something else as well. fdr came looking for a cure, but it was the lessons he learned here that he used to lift a nation. humili humility, empathy, courage, optimism.

this place represented a way forward, a way of restoration, of resilience, of healing. in the years that followed, fdr would come back to warm springs often, to think about how to heal the nation and the world. and that's exactly what he did. lifting us out of a great depression, defeating tyranny, saving democracy. then it was here on april 12, 1945 that president roosevelt died. a casualty of war as surely as any who fell in combat. and the free world mourned. american leaders wept. maybe more important was the reaction of the american people. naval chief petty officer graham jackson, a black man, cried as he played his accordion in tribute to fdr not far from

here. and the stories told that when franklin roosevelt's stream of procession went by, a man collapsed in grief and the neighbor asked him, did you know the president? his response was, no, the man said, but he knew me. he knew me. few words better describe the kind of president our nation needs right now. a president who is not in it for himself, but for others. a president who doesn't divide us, but unites us. a president who appeals not to the worst in us, but to the best. a president who cares less about his tv ratings and more about the american people. the president who looks not to settle scores, but to find solutions. a president guided not by

wishful thinking, but by science, reason and fact. that's the kind of president i hope to be. i'm running as a proud democrat, but i will govern as an american president. i'll work with democrats and republicans, i'll work as hard for those who don't support me as for those who do. that's the job of a president. a duty of care for everyone. this place, warm springs, is a reminder that though broken, each of us can be healed. that as a people and a country, we can overcome this devastating virus. that we can heal a suffering world and, yes, we can restore our soul and save our country. in his last hours, president

roosevelt was at work on a speech to be delivered the next day. in it he was to say, quote, today we must cultivate the science of human relationships, the ability of all people, of all kinds to live together and work together in the same world at peace. to live together and work together. that's how i see america. that's how i see the presidency. and that's how i see the future. i tell you this from my heart. i believe america and america of hope, not fear. unity, not division. love, not hate. the presidency, though, is only one part of the american chorus. history isn't only a story of the great and the famous. no. our history is a story of, we, the people, of all of us,

together. i've long said the story of america is a story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. change in our country comes when the voices of the powerless reach the ears of the powerful. when those whose names we will never know but have risked their lives to, in the word of dr. king, bend the arc of moral universe toward justice. bending that arc is the work of our time. but it will take all of us, red states, blue states, republicans, democrats, conservatives and liberals, and i believe from the bottom of my heart we can do it. people ask me, why are you so confident, joe? because we are the united states of america. there's nothing, nothing the

american people can't do and have been unable to do if we put our minds to it. when news of franklin roosevelt's death went out on the wires, an editor in chicago turned to his colleagues and said, clear the decks for action. so, i say to you today, if you give me the honor of serving as your president, clear the decks for action for we will act, we will act on the first day of my presidency to get covid under control, we'll act to pass my economic plan that will finally reward work, not wealth in this country. we'll act to pass my health care plan and provide affordable, accessible health care for every american and drug prices that are dramatically lower. we'll act to pass the biden climate plan, meeting the challenges of a climate crisis while creating millions of good-paying, high-paying labor

jobs. we'll act to address systemic racism in our country. we'll act to give working people a fair shot again in this country. and we'll act to restore our faith in democracy and our faith in one another. today, we're facing a public health crisis of historic proportions. and with winter at hand, it's getting worse. just last friday, 83,000 new cases in one day. saturday, another 83,000 cases. nearly 1,000 people a day are dying. another 200,000 deaths are expected over the next several months. and the president keeps telling us not to worry. he keeps telling us, we're turning the corners