if it is wednesday, going for broke. or going broke. the trump campaign is facing a major cash crunch with time running out as biden stays close to home in delaware to draw attention to the virus. plus a nightmare scenario in wisconsin. new restrictions in illinois. field hospitals in texas. record levels of infections are raging across the country right now. as the white house tries to

claim credit for ending this pandemic. and no, the pandemic hasn't ended. and louisiana braces for yet another major storm to strike its shores this season. number three. it's hurricane zeta. as it intensifies and heads toward new orleans. welcome to wednesday. it is "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd. six days to go. six. joe biden is about to cast his ballot in delaware, then take questions from reporters. more than 72 million votes have been cast early so far. there are few signs that president trump is chipping away at joe biden's lead. and the trump campaign is facing a severe financial disadvantage in crucial battleground states. nowhere perhaps is that more noticeable than in florida.

look at this. from now until election day the biden campaign on its own has booked nearly $8 million in ads. the trump campaign by comparison is spending almost nothing. $300,000. and they're leaving it up to the rnc and outside groups to try to pick up some of the slack. emphasis on the word some. and while the rnc is spending more money than the dnc by about a million dollars, other democratic groups are collectively outspending republican groups -- again, this is in the state of florida. by about a 4-1 margin. a big part of this is michael bloomberg, for what it's worth. but this is not all a florida only phenomenon. the bide encampaign the dnc and democratic groups are collectively outspending the trump campaign, the rnc and republican groups by, well, everywhere and by an enormous margin. folks, when you look at these numbers, it shows you two important things. one is the trump campaign looks to be in dire financial shape. just dire. they only have $10 million cash to be on tv for this last week on their own. and the trump campaign appears

to be searching for any path to 270 that may not go through america's most important swing state, florida. you read that right. they're actually trying to see if there is a way for them to win without florida. as we showed you yesterday in our nbc battleground map, even if trump swept every swing state including florida he'd still fall short right now. if they lose florida, it seems to be a lot harder to see a path to 270 for trump. he's got to flip states that don't look flipable right now. michigan and wisconsin being examples a and b. now, the biden campaign, meanwhile, is keeping biden off the campaign trail with just six days to go. let me repeat. joe biden, the democratic nominee, with jsix days to go i not campaigning anywhere today. now, depending what happens next week we're either going to view this as a brilliant strategic decision, staying on message on the virus, or an epic blunder. the biden campaign clearly wants the focus to remain on the raging pandemic. and frankly look at the mess in wisconsin that the president has now participated in.

this morning bide enwas briefed by a team of medical experts and moments ago he delivered some remarks in delaware. >> yesterday the white house science office, and this stunned me, put out a statement listing ending the covid-19 pandemic as a top accomplishment of president trump's first term. top accomplishment of trump's first term. at the very moment when infection rates are going up almost every state in our union. >> biden said he will shortly be going to cast his ballot and then he'll take questions from reporters. we'll keep a close eye on that when it happens. but joining me now from outside of the white house is nbc's carol lee. ali vitali is following the biden campaign for us in delaware today. carol, let me start with you. this major cash crunch that i know that the trump campaign is trying to spin as saying we got -- as think campaign that's

getting outspent does. we have the resources we need. there's plenty of room. they're going to be in 12 states. but this looks to be just a enormous fail here and to me what it showcases is donald trump has not contributed anything -- i believe $8,000 total in in-kind contributions has come from the candidate himself. the so-called billionaire has not written a single big check to his own campaign even when they're running out of money. what does that tell us about how donald trump thinks about his chances? >> it's a great question, chuck. and not only cha, has the president not contributed significantly to his campaign that we know of but the campaign is still asking for big money checks from other donors. they've been having fund-raisers over the past week, which is frankly extremely unusual for a campaign at this stage to be trying to scramble to raise -- to spend time fund-raising.

what the trump campaign says is that they don't -- they have the money they need as you said but also that their most important asset, and this is also something campaigns say when they don't have the money they would like to have, that their most important asset, the president, is out there and he's going to be going to as many states and making as many stops as he possibly can. and that in their estimation, according to people close to the president, could move a percentage point in certain battleground states according to them. they're really putting a lot of emphasis on the fact the president's having all these rallies thaerks has the energy. they think that sends a good message. the flip side of that is that there are others who say these images of these rallies with people not wearing masks, not socially distancing, packing together with the president, that that's something that actually can turn some voters off, especially in these states where you're seeing a spike in coronavirus cases. >> i want to actually play a bite from the president in omaha

last night about the surge in the midwest. and then i want to ask about it on the other side because wisconsin's extraordinarily bad. take a listen. >> the midwest, little areas in the midwest, certain areas that are heated up right now. they'll go down. they'll go down very quickly. they'll be down within two weeks they're figuring. they'll go down. just like they did in florida, texas, arizona and so many others. >> the president himself was in wisconsin. wisconsin has field hospitals. wisconsin has an entire college football team that's having to essentially quarantine because they have a massive outbreak there. oh, by the way, the president was in omaha. next door in lincoln is another football team named the university of nebraska whose game against wisconsin was canceled. my point is that here just where the president wants credit for opening the big ten his handling of the virus has canceled football in two crucial areas that the president just visited in the last 24 hours.

i mean, their connection to these outbreaks has got to be something that worries somebody over there. >> yeah, and chuck, if you listen to what the president just said, what you just played, that's almost verbatim of what he was saying back in march, about things being open for easter, churches being packed. so he's bringing this message as people say have seen this movie before. he's bringing the same message, saying this is going to go away in a couple of weeks. and that's just not what people are extermination on the grou are experiencing on the ground. there is some concern among people close to the president but not enough concern for anyone to put astop to him holding these large cascale rallies. he's made his bet and it's not going to stop in the next five days. >> if donald trump -- and there's a lot of questions about how he's holding his rallies and how he's following covid protocols or not following covid

protocols. ali vitali, if there's a critique of the biden campaign, it's are they being overly cautious with the candidate? i want to play a little clip from biden yesterday that clearly was a bit of a response about his travel schedule. here it is. >> i'm being responsible. i'm not becoming a great spreader of covid. i'm going to be all over the country. and i have been. but i've been responsible. we have not been doing these superspreading events, causing hundreds of people to come down with covid. >> so ali, i understand that. but it is odd to me that six days before election day he is not in a battleground state today. not at all. >> i think the way you said it at the top is the way we'll look back at it. either this will be brilliant or this will be the thing that was why they lost. i think that for them when you talk about how the biden team has campaigned they have wanted to campaign as they would govern, which is science-based, listening to cdc guidelines,

consistent briefings by health experts. that's what we saw biden doing here today in wilmington, getting a briefing from health experts and then going out and, again, focusing on the pandemic. one of the biden aides i was talking to the other day joked with me that we shouldn't expect to see this message change, if anything only sharpen, on the idea of the pandemic. because if you look around every battleground state that we often talk about, the places where frankly biden is going to be going and that trump has been going are all experiencing surges right now. this is the issue that is inextricably linked with every voter as they step into a polling place because all of them are going to be wearing masks while they do it. so as much as trump wants to paint the reality that this is over, though i am a little confused about if they can't control it or if they've already controlled it based on the competing messages that have been coming out, what's clear is that that's not the reality at all and joe biden has so the to consistently exploit that. not just because it's politics but because it's the actual reality for every american. so the fact that he's off the campaign trail does not mean

that he's off message. it does, though, breed? hand wringing among democrats who wonder if this is the best approach. i guess we'll see, though, six days from now whether or not this was the right idea. but at least for right now we saw biden today making a speech on the message that he thinks is the winning message. and of course he did just go in to vote today too, chuck. so getting that out of the way ahead of the final sprint before election day too. >> well, i do want to show his schedule for the next three days. and it includes -- and this will probably make democrats feel a little bit better. tomorrow it's two stops in florida, broward and tampa. friday it's iowa and wisconsin. saturday it's michigan. and it's my understanding sunday and/or monday and perhaps both will be some combination of pennsylvania. as much as they are toying with georgia, toying with texas, he is going to close in the core battlegrounds it looks like. >> reporter: exactly. and when i was talking to another aide on the biden team,

they said this schedule is going to reflect where they've put a lot of their money. we know he's spend more time in pennsylvania than any other state. there are so many reasons why it factors into the calculus there, both for cutting trump off at the electoral pass and also for getting themselves where they need to be on that electoral map. but you are seeing a good mix here of aggressive campaigning and then also campaigning in the place that's we would expect them to. of course the biden campaign calendar includes places like michigan and wisconsin but at the same time you're seeing kamala harris today in arizona. on friday she's going to be in texas. it's really surprising to see a vice presidential nominee hitting up mcallen texas in the waning days before election day, but it does show that they're trying to both play offense and not necessarily defense but protective of the states that they know they're going to need. and frank lly those states are ones from georgia to arizona to texas that you know democrats have been salivating over for years. >> i'm going to pause you there.

joe biden just walked out from voting and he's going to talk right now fought press. let's listen in. >> what i say is that there is no excuse whatsoever for the looting and the violence. none whatsoever. i think to be able to protest is totally legitimate. it's totally reasonable. but i think that the looting is just -- as the victim's father said, do not do this. it's not what my son -- you're not helping. you're hurting. you're not helping my son. and there are certain things we're going to have to do as we move along. and i think i know the local folks in philadelphia thinking about it as well. and that is how we deal with, how you diminish the prospect of lethal shooting in circumstances like the one we saw. that's going to be part of the commission i set up to determine how we deal with these changes. but there's no excuse for the looting.

>> [ inaudible question ]. >> yes. yes on both counts. yes, i have a bill ready, number one. number two, yes, i will work with republicans. and yes, i do have a proposal that relates to how we can improve the affordable care act beyond what it was before, which barack and i wanted to do at the time to add a public option, allowing people to keep their private insurance if that's what they choose they want to do, making it more affordable to get a better plan in terms of a goal plan, all the different plans, you can make it more affordable, subsidizing it more. and fundamentally changing the way in which the cost of medication is. we're going to lower it by a significant amount. and i believe we can get help from republicans as well. >> why? >> well, why? because they're seeing the

reaction of the american people. overwhelming. overwhelming, the american people think drug prices are too high. even the president, he continues to lie about it, even the president acknowledged early on that he thought medicare should be able to negotiate drug prices to lower prices overall. he hasn't done it. he doesn't mean it. but there's a lot of republicans that do mean it. so i'm confident we can get it done. thank you all very much. >> you saw there joe biden took a couple of questions. one the unrest in philadelphia following the shooting of a black man there who wouldn't drop a knife. and a lot of questions about the use of force there. and you heard the former vice president talk about a commission that he plans on forming on how to deal with police reform. and then the second question appeared to be a question about his health care plan. joining me, marcos mel-itsas. founder of the daily coast.

and mark steele. interesting when you look at both candidates in some ways one, not taking the rievirus seriously enough at all. and one if there's a criticism is he taking it too seriously at least when it comes to campaigning? marcos, let me start with you. is there any part of you that's nervous about the light biden footprint when it comes to campaigning, when it comes to the door knocking, when it comes to this stuff? it is probably the only hole in the campaign infrastructure, which is obvious why it's there. it's due to the pandemic. >> yeah. i was a little more worried, to be honest, about spending a lot more time in georgia and texas. and i'm somebody who's really gung ho on expanding the map. but if there's one thing i'm still traumatized over 2016 was hillary clinton looking at states like arizona without locking down michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. so that's the one piece that has me a little worries. but like you said he has plans

to go back to those states in these last few days. so i'm a little less worried about it. and also let's not forget so many people have already voted. this is not a typical election. as we've known in the past. >> michael steele, the question is the other way with the trump campaign. one of the things i said on sunday is the october surprise may be that we're getting the third surge as election day comes. and the president seems to be insisting on making a huge push in the one region of the country that is experiencing a spike. and that's the midwest. this may not end well. >> yeah. i mean, the president -- i am completely unsurprised that the president is finishing the campaign the way he did in 2016, the way he wanted to. it's letting trump be trump, doing these massive unsafe rallies. and i think that it's really the only thing left available to him. he doesn't have the resources to do things virtually. he doesn't have the resources to let television ads and surrogates to the extent he has any left carry the load for him.

so this is all he has left. it's all he knows. and he's going to end just the way he began. >> michael steel, just to get people to properly understand what the rnc is doing here, the trump campaign is insisting it's not out of money. but if the trump campaign were not out of money, would the rnc have to be using its resources right now to purchase donald trump campaign ads? >> right. the campaign is broke. the president is not writing checks. big donors are not writing more checks. the rnc is providing life support to a campaign that desperately needs it because the campaign has mishandled its finances coming into the critical final stretch of this race. >> markos, when you look at the green wave that we're seeing, we saw it in '18, and it did produce -- one could argue it did produce -- that probably made the difference in a lot of house democrats going from 47 to 51. what do you think this advantage

means this time down the ballot? what do you expect this green wave to produce? >> i mean, we're seeing fund-raising numbers that are just mind-boggling, right? we have jaime harrison running for senate in south carolina reporting $56 million. that's presidential-level money just a few cycles ago. we're seeing house races -- >> markos, let me interrupt you here a minute. markos, i've got to give you my favorite stat. donald trump's campaign in the last week has booked $10 million in television ads. jaime harrison in the last week has booked $6 million in television ads in one state. anyway. continue. >> yeah. no, so you're seeing -- you're seeing house race that's are raising the kind of money senate campaigns used to raise and you're seeing state legislators raising the kind of money house campaigns used to raise, in the millions of dollars over the last month. so obviously money isn't everything in politics. and the one sort of argument

i'll give to donald trump is that hillary clinton dramatically outspent him in 2016. he did not win because of money in 2016. and that can be said about any race. but what that does is it negates one of the republican party's historical advantages over the democrats. that was big money. and it puts democrats in that driving seat. and this is something that is often overlooked, is that that money comes from small dollar donors. that means that each one of those individuals is bested in those races, which makes them more likely to do things like phone calls, knock on doors and be more directly engaged in that process. this is all a huge win for democrats. it's truly grassroots. and it's something that republicans have been trying to replicate for the last decade at least and they still haven't gotten that yet. >> michael steel, i was -- i am just struck by -- i've got to think when bill stepien, the president's campaign manager,

let him know what their ad budget was for the last week, that part of his hope was that maybe, just maybe that the president would say okay, how much should i write? how much should this check be? and instead they're asking others to write checks and the president himself, and i don't know if ivanka's given. i don't know if jared's given. maybe they've maxed out. but he hasn't written his own check. it either says one of two things -- he doesn't have the cash, even $10 million, say, for a final week, or he doesn't think he can win and it's not worth it. >> it definitely is not the sign of a confident candidate. it's not the sign of a candidate who believes he's on a path to victory. at the same time i would argue that he was not a confident candidate in 2016. i think it was a surprise to donald trump that he won the white house in 2016, losing the popular vote and putting together this very unlikely electoral college path. so i think this lack of confidence is an indicator of something. but it may not necessarily mean

that he is definitely losing this time. >> all right, steel, but do you see anything this time that gave you the same pause four years ago when it came to trump? >> i worry just because after 2016 i feel like we all should have drop-kicked our crystal balls into a dumpster fire. i would certainly rather be biden than trump right now. i do worry about some sort of narrow path where the president can lose, say, wisconsin and michigan and run the table elsewhere. i mean, that's what -- if i'm the trump campaign, that's what i'm thinking right now. we can hang on to florida. we can let things go in the upper midwest and win this thing. >> there's a new california poll out today and biden has a very narrow 36-point lead in the state of california. but it is a reminder, it is a reminder that in the blue states biden's numbers are going to be

astronomical. does it mean that he needs a 7, 8, 9-point national poll lead to get the 270 he needs? because it does seem as if the battleground states don't move even as the national numbers keep moving. >> well, the battlegrounds have moved. you're seeing consistent 5 to 7-point leads in states like wisconsin, pennsylvania, and michigan and staller leads in georgia, arizona. texas is competitive. texas is competitive. i can't believe i'm saying texas is competitive. but yeah, you need -- the national numbers are less important. but you're seeing a uniform shift of several points in the direction of the democrats and that's why you have a much broader playing field, much broader battleground map than we did even at the beginning of this cycle. for sure the popular vote's going to be a biden victory. it's almost guaranteed at this point. but the battlegrounds are battlegrounds for a reason. they're the states that are most closely contested. >> absolutely.

and in the south you've got to still watch out for the evangelical white women. it is keeping donald trump alive in the sun belt states. markos moulitsas and michael steel, thank you both. much appreciated. meanwhile, we have just learned that president trump is expected to deliver some remarks himself later this hour at the trump hotel in las vegas. and when he does, we'll try to keep an eye on that as well. but up ahead, a troubling combination in pennsylvania. hourslong lines of voters and a resurgence of the coronavirus. we'll talk with pennsylvania governor tom wolf about how the state is handling the vote and the spike.

welcome back. in pennsylvania, one of the most hotly contested states this election, about 20% of all registered voters have already cast their ballots. more than 1.8 million pennsylvanians have voted by mail including 200,000 new voters. those ballots, though, cannot be counted until election day. state officials say most votes will be counted by the end of the week, it appears. we may not know who won pennsylvania for days. despite pressure from president trump for a winner to be declared on election night. yesterday was also the state's deadline to apply for mail ballots and many pennsylvanians waited in line for hours to get those ballots. you've seen images like this of large gatherings of voters comes as the state faces a resurgence in covid cases. in fact, pennsylvania reported nearly 4,000 new cases on monday. a new one-day record. and put -- and on top of all that we have unrest in the city

of philadelphia due to that police shooting that we told you about that joe biden was asked about. so a lot on the plate for my next guest. with me now is the governor of pennsylvania, democrat tom wolf. governor wolf, welcome back to the show. >> thank you, chuck. good to be with you. >> like i said, you have a full plate these days considering what's happening in your largest city, what's happening with the state elections, and of course the virus. let me start frankly with the virus because it does feel as if it's running into the brick wall of election day, which could become inadvertently a superspreader event. how concerned are you about this combination where rising cases, colder weather, and a lot of in-person voting happening in six days? >> i think every governor in every state in the country is concerned about this. well, maybe not in the sun belt. but the midwest has seen a big outbreak. so it is happening around election time. i think we all knew the second

surge, the resurgence, would happen around now. cold weather coming into flu season. and the election on top of that. but i think all of us, certainly pennsylvania, we're in a very different place than we were before back in march and april. and we're in a much better place from the point of view of our hospital capacity. we're in a much better place because we have vote by mail. so there will be fewer people coming out to vote on hex day because we have 3 million people who have chosen to register to vote by mail. so all those things i think, there's no reason to be complacent. but we're in a very different situation than we were back in march and april. >> and just to i think remind folks because you have some different rules than other states. correct me if i'm wrong, the big ohio-penn state game this weekend, there will be no fans, correct? >> there will be some fans

there. >> oh, there will be? >> you can have up to 7,500 people in on outdoor event like a football game. so penn state will make its own decision as to how they want to do this. i don't think there there are going to be tailgaters there. but i do think there will be people in the stands. but again, that's penn state's decision. >> well, and it is 7,800 out of 100,000 seats. one would assume you could socially distance your way around something like that. let me ask you about -- >> that's the hope. yeah. >> let me ask you about the election. it does feel as if a lot's going to get litigated here no matter what happens. are you concerned that the election count just is going to continue to get delayed, maybe by lawsuits, maybe by trying to slow the count, stop the count, question the count? it does feel as if the litigation that we're going to see is going to be concentrated in your state. are you prepared for all this?

>> actually, the litigation started months ago. the trump campaign has used the court system in many very innovative ways. but they've lost. so far pretty much everything they've tried. they wanted to -- out west but the republican campaign lost on appeal. i think the bulk of folks in pennsylvania, republicans and democrats, want this to be a fair and free and open and accurate election. and that's what we're going to get. i've been working with county officia officials, county commissioners throughout this process, and we're on the same page. i don't care what your political ideology is. you want a fair election. that's democracy. i think everybody in pennsylvania is committed to that. and i think the other side's use of these unusual tactics is an indication maybe of their sense

of weakness. >> what is your best estimation of when we would get to 90% of the vote counted? are we looking at friday? are we looking at the weekend? more do you think it could happen by wednesday or thursday? >> i think it could happen earlier than that maybe. we had a dry run of this back in june with our primary. and some of the bigger counties actually got their count done by early in the morning on wednesday. so by 3:00 a.m. election night they had the count. some of the other big counties were a little later than that and some much later than that but we've worked overt intervening period to make sure the things they did right in places like allegheny county, that we replicate that, we invested heavily -- counties have, in machines that can open envelopes and scan mail-in

ballots. they've added people. so all those things suggest that we've learned a lot of lessons. are we going to be perfect? no. will there be some time after the election? probably. and the prognosticators from cnn and others are going to have to be a little more patient than maybe they were. both of my elections were called by 801 or 802 on election night. that ain't going to happen. so i think, you know, there's a different algorithm out there but we'll get things counted pretty quickly. >> finally, i know you've authorized the national guard to deal with protecting property in philadelphia. let me ask you this. based on what you've learned so far from the incident, do you believe that philadelphia police overreacted? >> i believe our system puts everybody involved in this kind of thing, the family, the victim, the police, everybody, in a really bad situation. we need to stop it.

we need to change the system so that we stop putting people in positions where bad things like this happen. >> well, it seems like -- does feel like something we are running into the election brick wall. perhaps after the election there will be more folks ready to sit down and calm the waters. we shall see. pennsylvania governor tom wolf, democrat from pennsylvania, thank you for coming out and sharing your perspective. >> thank you, chuck. coming up, as coronavirus cases spread faster than ever, a new dire forecast at just how long it will last. plus here's a live look at hurricane zeta as it churns its way toward the gulf coast. the very latest on the storm's track. plus a live update as new orleans prepares for yet another major storm. all of that is next. we're all finding ways to keep moving.

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call, click, or visit your local xfinity store today. welcome back. hurricane zeta continues to intensify over the gulf as it

heads toward new orleans this afternoon. zeta expected to make landfall now as a category 2 hurricane, which means maximum sustained winds of over 100 miles per hour. this is the 27th named storm of this historically busy hurricane season. and it's the fifth time a storm is heading directly toward louisiana. hurricane warnings are in effect along the mississippi coast to the alabama state line. tropical storm warnings along the florida panhandle. and with just a week left until election day the hurricane is also limiting early voting hours in those three florida gulf coast counties closest to the alabama line and all of them happen to be very conservative counties. joining me from new orleans is nbc news correspondent morgan chesky. so morgan, i mean, you've had lake charles has taken a beating. new orleans is preparing all year. they've sort of, kind of dodged this one. i've got to think it's a very fatigued set of residents in the state of louisiana.

>> reporter: yeah, chuck, you're absolutely right. no matter where you look you find the storm fatigue, weariness from when unprecedented season in a lot of ways. i had a chance to speak with someone who lives in new orleans all their lives. they said they've never seen a season like this. i said at least you've had a good year up until now. they said that's not necessarily the indicates because having been in that cone seven times prior to this everyone has to get ready, they have to protect their personal property, they have to take time off of work, make arrangements and that's happened again and again and again. and this time if zeta holds its current path we're looking at a direct hit with sometime later this afternoon or early this evening you mentioned those 100-mile-an-hour winds. that's going to be more than enough to cause widespread power outages, topple those trees into homes. if there is any silver lining at all with this storm at least for this area it is because it's such a fast-moving hurricane, moving anywhere from 16 to 17 miles an hour, that while it will be powerful, hopefully it'll clear through this area and move onwards giving those

resources -- recovery resources time to help these folks out first thing come tomorrow morning. chuck? >> yeah, but morgan, katrina i think was downgraded to a category 2 when it hit and the perception was they dodged a bullet. how do we feel about the levees? and the storm surge. fast mover usually means a lessened storm surge. but what do local officials believe here? >> reporter: officials have closed an additional floodgates to make sure the surge is not an issue here. there is a slight vulnerability to this entire system here, chuck. we know one of the turbines that powers the pumps that drains the city of new orleans has been taken offline. it happened again over the summertime. they used additional resources to try to make up for that. but a regular rainstorm was enough to cause? flooding. so that's a concern going into this storm, chuck. they do say they have backup power for that. but we'll be seeing -- we'll be watching to see what happens

come later today. >> always is will it work when they need it to? morgan chesky in new orleans for us. morgan, thank you, sir. now to the latest on coronavirus. according to nbc news data confirmed coronavirus infections are spreading across the country at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic. today cases are increasing in at least 43 states across the country. hospitalizations are up more than 40% just over the last month. and deaths are now going up in at least 32 states. so here are the facts as we know them right now. as the administration claims the pandemic is ending, dr. fauci is cautioning that it could be closer to 2022 before our lives return to normal. so that's not really near an end. he warns an eventual vaccine is not, quote, a light switch and that masks and social distancing will still be necessary and a way of life. the los angeles dodgers are celebrating their first world series wins in three decades but the team is also facing tough questions after third baseman justin turner was pulled mid-game because of a positive coronavirus test and then seen on the field celebrating with teammates and removing his mask

for photos. you've got to ask, are both the rays and the dodgers, had there been a game 7 there would be no game tonight because of covid. and are they really going to let these folks travel until they're done quarantining? in el paso hospitals are setting up medical tents to help with the overflow of patients. the convention center is also being converted into a field hospital. the county has issued new restrictions including a curfew. idaho has nearly a 35% positivity rate. let me repeat. a 35% positivity rate. hospitals are being overwhelmed by patients. on monday governor brad little rolled back the state's reopening slightly. but he has yet to issue a statewide mask mandate. and in fact we want to stick with idaho. dr. joshua kern joins me now. vice president of medical affairs at st. luke's magic valley, ohio's largest health care provider. dr. kern, let me just start there. paint the picture at your hospital there. we see the positivity rate is beyond alarming. which usually is followed then

by a huge spike in hospitalizatio hospitalizations. so what is your situation? >> yeah, what we're seeing is we've had about 40% of all of our positives in my county in the last three weeks. so it kind of gives you a scale of how significant -- >> wow. >> -- this surge of cases is. we have been very full. our census has been very high. we've actually had to start making different decisions about what we're doing here at the hospital and even transferring? to our sister hospital in boise because of the volumes here in twin falls. >> so what does that mean for non-covid-related medical procedures? are you doing -- are you having to postpone elective surgery? what are you looking at here? >> yeah. so far we've stopped the elective surgery that need an overnight bed. which you know, is a good number of patients. like hysterectomies, knee replacements, those kinds of

things we're not doing to save on the hospital beds. and then we're also diverting all of our piediatric patients and sending them up to the children's hospital in boise. but even after making that decision the children's hospital started getting full. so we're having to kind of walk this tightrope. what we can keep and what we need to be sending elsewhere. >> what would you like state officials to do to help you out here? >> yeah, we'd like to see more people wearing masks and whether that's through mandates or the community really embracing it. and then people really need to look at what they're doing with social events and getting together with people in situations where you can spread the coronavirus. if we want to get back to normal, we need to get the virus under control. and i think that's the only way we can move forward. >> where are you finding out --

right now idaho is in stage 3, so indoor gatherings must be limited to 50 people or less. outdoor gatherings must remain at 25% capacity or less. those are numbers that some would argue are too high. those capacities are too high. would you like to see those restrictions brought down? go to 10 people or less. which is really what it seems to be a lot of the more aggressive states have done. >> well, i'll correct one thing. those numbers, those cutoffs, keep in mind they're supposed to follow distancing and masking guidelines. those numbers are contingent upon us actually following those rules, which again i'm not sure is actually happening. before our health district stopped being able to do really good contact tracing, they felt a lot of the spread is even on smaller groups, back yard barbecues and that kind of thing. people kind of getting that covid fatigue and trying to feel like let's get back to normal. but everyone did it at once and

now we've got the virus everywhere. >> you just said stop contact tracing. what do you mean stopped contact tracing? you just got overwhelmed? >> yeah, overwhelmed. the numbers got so big that it was basically impossible to keep up on the contact tracing. and i know our health district has been scrambling to get more people trained up. but you know, good contact tracing takes a couple of hours per person. but when you're having 500 cases a week, you know, the man-hours don't really add up. there's not enough available in a small community like ours. >> all right. so if you don't see any new mitigation efforts how fearful are you about halloween, election day and thanksgiving? these are three massive communal events potentially. >> yeah, the key thing really is in large part what happens here. but then also in our surrounding communities. and the news out of, you know, eastern idaho, salt lake city

and boise are increasing numbers and filling up hospitals. and that's where you start to get into the issue of okay, we're full but there's nowhere to send the overflow patients. and that's kind of what gives you pause and makes me really fearful for what the worst possible outcome would be, which is rationing care, something we've never even talked about. in my 15 years of medical practice i've never even thought about the need to do that before. >> is your best assessment here that people just don't believe this is as vicious, this is as contagious as we say? is this just a skepticism of government, of public officials, of the press? >> yeah. absolutely. all of the above. i think we just continue to hear all of the sort of conspiracy theories or lack of belief or this is going to go away after the election. now that we're only a week out from the election, i feel

reasonably confident this is not going to just fade away magically next week. the numbers suggest we're in for it for weeks. and that's if the community gets the virus under control. and i just hope people start to hear this message. and i appreciate the chance to come sort of echo these issues. >> yeah. no, i mean, it's one of the things we're trying to focus on. we know the big states get a lot of attention but i think right now this outbreak in smaller communities, especially communities that are close to rural communities that get this influx and it's clear that's what you're experiencing there. dr. joshua kern, thanks for coming on, sharing your stories with us so people can get a better, clearer picture of what's happening. thank you, sir. >> thank you so much, chuck. we are waiting now on president trump. he is set to give? remarks any minute now from las vegas. while we wait let me bring in carol lee. as we wait here. what's fascinating, carol, about the president's travel schedule out west today is -- and

yesterday, and i know we're waiting here for a minute from him is that him giving these remarks i guess he'll now say he's campaigned in nevada. but they did not have a nevada campaign plan today even though he was overnighting there and he only campaign plan there. he only overnights where he owns property and he has a piece of a hotel in las vegas. >> yeah, this also keeps him at that three event a day minimum and the closing days of the campaign. so now he'll do these remarks in nevada and then he will hold his two rallies in arizona before flying to florida and having a series of events tomorrow and friday. but we don't know exactly what he is going to say. the set up looks far more like an official white house event than perhaps a campaign event. we know there are people there wearing buttons that say i love

trumps. and one is a retail association of nevada. so perhaps an economic announcement. we have not gotten exactly an idea. but it allows him to be on the map there having spoken while he is in the state. >> one number we know the president pays a lot of attention to is the stock market. there is a big drop that we're experiencing now and it appears to be due to a lot of concern about well, nobody knows what washington will do with covid relief, and frankly the spice in covid and the administration's decision to say hey, it isn't in our control, we established this, is the white house aware that perhaps the president's favorite metric is now working against them? >> you can bet that the

president is probably keenly aware of that. he plays close attention to the stock market. it was part of his whole campaign spiel where he will say that if joe biden is elected then everyone's 401 ks will go away. and that will continue to sore. he likes to play it up as something rising and falling with the stock market, that is what we're seeing here. >> all right, we expect these remarks from the president in las vegas any moment now. we'll catch you up on a slew of polls that have come out in the last three hours. we'll be right black. back. back. ountry. with the coverage of 5g nationwide.

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they did a poll of all latinos and they had biden up nationally. biden up five in georgia in the new poll. the marquette poll has biden up in wisconsin. biden up 8 in michigan according to a new "new york times" sienna poll. so we have a slew of numbers and nothing in the polls has shifted from what we saw before the last debate. the president is starting to speak. let's listen in. great newspaper endorsements in the last three days. maybe i could just introduce the nevada trucking association. the retail association of nevada, that's a big deal. associated builders and contractors, big stuff. and start up nevada. lisa, thank you very much. i appreciate it. so maybe you could say a few

words and we'll talk and i appreciate it very much. >> thank you, mr. president. i'm paul enos head of the trucking association. i'm blessed to represent an industry that touches every sector of our economy. that is something that really became apparent during this pandemic. this administration took unprecedented steps to ensure that not only did our truck drivers have proper ppe so they could be safe, but so that we could deliver all of the things, grocery, toilet paper, meat, to our grocery store shelves. deliver medical equipment, tax reform that the president implemented has been phenomenal. it allowed us to invest in safer, cleaner trucks on the road. it enabled us to increase the rates for our truck drivers. they have enhanced safety. they made those rules a lot more

flexible for truck drivers, and allowed them to get home at night. this administration protected our smallest trucking companies, the independent owner and operators giving the ability to contract and be able to go out and start their own business. work for themselves, achieve the american dream. at a very human level this industry has trained almost a million truck drivers across the country to recognize and report signs of human trafficking. we commend your administration's efforts and successes in comba combatting this evil. >> thank you, i appreciate it very much. >> well, this is not what we anticipated. thought we would be hearing from the president. if we hear from him we will go back but right now it looks like this is some sort of testimonials that he is lining folks up with.

so we will, like i said, leave it here. we will of course monitor it for information if we think you definitely need brought to you. with that that does it for us. thank you for watching, katy tur takes over coverage. not sure if i'm handing you a live baton. >> this reminds me of the birtherism press conference that he held at his own hotel where he thought he could come out and say something but we got testimonials beforehand. good to see you. >> good afternoon, i'm katy tur, it is 11:00 a.m. in the west, 2:00 p.m. in the east. welcome to the last mienl of our two-year election marathon. in the last days one candidate is being accused of risking people's lives in order to campaign. trump is speaking in nevada right now and then he is going to arizona for two more rallies today which we can now assume, pretty fe