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tv   Weekends With Alex Witt  MSNBC  October 31, 2020 9:00am-10:00am PDT

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and what did he do with that information? right, sister. he covered it up. he didn't tell the american people. can you imagine as a parent, as a teacher, as a small business owner what you might have done had you known on january 28th what the president knew? what you might have done, because here's the thing. even before the pandemic, far too many americans were working two and three jobs to put food on the table and pay the rent, and by the way, in joe biden and my america, nobody should have to work more than one job to pay the rent and put food on the table. [ cheers and applause ] [ horns honking ] >> how people might have prepared.
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how people might have prepared knowing that even before the pandemic, most families don't have even $1,000 in savings, and if folks had known the predictable, which is that we might have to isolate, we might have to shut things down for a little bit, people could have saved up. how people could have prepared. buying an extra couple rolls of toilet paper. but they sat on that information. and now in the midst of this public health crisis, donald trump with his boy bill barr, already -- >> top of the hour east coast noon, 9:00 a.m. out west listening to kamala harris there in miami, florida, at a drive-in rally. we'll monitor that from the control booth for you. also going to take you now to north carolina, take a quick look at the vice president. he is at a rally, a maga rally there.
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take a listen for a moment. >> -- of the congress who worked to create the greatest economy the world's ever known. it's amazing to think that we stand here today just three days before an election, that joe biden actually wants to raise taxes by $4 trillion. in the midst of a global pandemic. he's got a $2 trillion version of the green new deal. >> okay. there you see two very different messages there. one about covid, the coronavirus, its affliction of 9 million people here in this country and that of the economy and the potential for raising taxes for those who make over $400,000. welcome, everybody. i'm alex witt. it is a sprint towards history. the final weekend before election day 2020. voting already at unprecedented levels gut w s but who's voting where? this is the scene right now in
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milwaukee, wisconsin. we're about to give you a live picture of that. on the campaign trail at this hour, there you see on the left the president set to take the stage in the keystone state. on the right you saw there democratic vice presidential nominee and the senator kamala harris, in the sunshine state. we also have a go-to vote drive-in rally, i mentioned one more time a good day to all of you. live here from msnbc world headquarters in new york. and i'm lx. democracy in action, anticipation and anxiety ripp rippling from sea to shining sea less than three days less to election day. three days and the clock is ticking and 79 hours, the first polls will officially close, 7:00 p.m. eastern time tuesday. meantime, both candidates in an all-out race to the wire making
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final pleas to voters. >> the people of our nation are going to be heard like never before. it's already begun. people are already starting to find out what's happening. because they're going to show up and vote in record numbers. and we have already started to see what's going on. >> he's not going to be able to stop us. not at all. as i said, you can't silence over 85 million people that have already voted. they've had enough. >> any moment the president will speak in newtown, pennsylvania. one of four stops he's making in the keystone state today add joe biden finishes up his final swing alongside hi former boss barack obama. the two appearing together onstage for the first time this election cycle and shattering
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records. more than 80 million votes already cast and experts say at this rate that number may reach 100 million before election day. right now nbc news polling average has biden leading trump 51.7 to 43.7%. and on this final weekend before the final votes, we report across the nation covering the candidates, voting, voters and the polls. begin this hour with nbc's barb. what else is going on at this drive-in rally? >> reporter: you can hear car horns behind me now. senator kamala harris is still addressing the crowd here. about 103 people in attendance. this is a drive-in rally focusenfocus en ed on getting out the vote. senator harris brought big names with her. we heard from fat joe and she
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began her speech telling the crowd that the other side, the people on the other side, are trying to question our values. she said we are proud, patriot americans who share values with most americans. that seemed to be an effort to push back on a narrative that's taken hold and resonated in south florida. particularly this part of the miami-dade area. west miami. you have a lot of cuban-americans living here and venezuelan americans and that's making the campaign go to socialism. trying to drive that message home and former vice president joe biden is not a socialist. again, that's a message that's resonated here and that seemed to be senator harris' effort at pushing back on that a bit as she began her speech here. early voting is under way and turnout up across the board. over 50% of registered voters across the state of florida already voted. same goes for miami-dade county specifically. there are a lot of unaffiliated,
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independent, no-party voters that have voted early in florida, but if you just look at the republicans and democrats in this state, right now democrats are out-pacing republicans as it relates to mail-in voting, but republicans are out-pacing democrats as it relates to early in-person voting. that's something obviously democrats want to change. they are here in miami because it's crunch time. this race is so close here. we will see president trump in miami-dade tomorrow. they are trying to eat away at the democrat's margins here. miami-dade is a democratic stronghold, but if president trump and his campaign can peel back some of those margins, then they could potentially take the state. that's what they are hoping to do. florida is a much-win for president trump and his campaign. biden-harris trying to make sure that doesn't happen and she's on the ground today making sure their supporters are enthusiastic and trying to encourage them to vote early. they can still do that until
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tomorrow. alex? >> once again, florida playing a pivotal role. thank you. looking forward to see you again. from florida to michigan. that is where joe biden and barack obama will be joining forces today in this next hour they'll make two campaign stops together in the battleground state. right to nbc's mike memoli joining us from flint. good day to you, mike. what can we expect to hear from biden and obama today? >> reporter: alex, this is a day a lot of democrats waited a long time to see. certainly since president obama endorsed his former running mate in april, once he locked up the nomination. the last time i've seen these two men together on a stage was probably four years ago. that was the day president obama gave biden, awarded him the president's medal of freedom joking then about their bromance together, really praising his record of public service at the time. he ended that speech by saying the best part is he's not done yet. that's certainly the message that the biden campaign has been
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using on the airwaves throughout this campaign. the fact he is the democratic nominee is in large part because of the partnership forged for four years in the white house. when we see them onstage you'll see the dual roles obama played for biden throughout the campaign. obviously talking about what he did for the american people both in eight years as vice president, but also through a whole lifetime of public service. also a little bit of the presidential zingers he's delivered on president trump on the campaign trail late lay. especially mocking him over what he's talked about in terms of the coronavirus. recently said at a campaign event that the president seems jealous of covid's media coverage with his lament about covid, covid, covid. talk about where we see the candidates, always a lot of spin where they think the candidates are up and down. where they're ahead. who's playing offense? who's plays defense? the fact the event is happening in michigan tells you just how important the biden campaign feels this state is. biden talking about the battle grounds yesterday in terms of
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what he is certainly not taking anything for granted. take a live sten to what he set last night in wisconsin. >> start right here in wisconsin. i remember came up here to campaign for hillary. for a whole lot of reasons, not all which william her fault, ended up not taking it seriously. thinking it was different. i've been here a lot. by the way, when i get elected, if i get elected, i'm coming back, tom. >> reporter: so biden the focus in the midwest. headed to pennsylvania monday and all day wednesday as well. heading to georgia and florida, two must-win battlegrounds. georgia in the president's ace and also in the senate race. >> mike memoli, thank you for the setup. turn to reading, pennsylvania, everyone. the president's second stop
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today. nbc's carol lee is there among our many reporters. welcome to you. we know the particular ed is heading there following that stop in newturn to and really going all-in on the keystone state today. i know he's expected there any time now. >> reporter: yes. he sure is, alex. two reasons. main reason is, pennsylvania has 20 electoral votes. a big hull. president trump would really like to have this in his column to help him get to that needed 270 electoral votes. the second reason the president is spending time here is because his campaign feels these are the types of voters he appealed to in 2016 and could again in 2020. voters who may have voted democrat in the past but spiched ov switched over to president trump in the 2016. working-class voters who took to his economic message. a big theme for him in 2016 and he's continuing to hit that closing out this campaign in
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these final days. his main message, though, alex, right now is turnout. that's all that the campaign has focused on. they need the president's voters to get out and vote. and we've heard from the president, vote whether now or on election day. take a listen to some of this speech last night in michigan. >> we did not come this far and fight this hard only to surrender out of country back to the washington swamp. so get your friends, get your family, get your neighbors and get out to vote, get out to vote. >> reporter: so that's likely what you'll likely hear the president saying as he campaigns from the east to the western part of the state. essentially get out and vote. that's the campaign message now until election day and not only making four stops in pennsylvania today, back in the state monday before election day
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as part of this last-minute blitz across the country, really, to all of these battleground states where the explain deploying what it feels is the best asset. the president, inspiring people to turn out for him. hitting ten different stops on sunday and monday to close out these final days of the campaign. alex? >> quite a blitz. you put it very correctly. thank you so much. we'll dig deeper with a great panel. director of progressive programming at sirius xm and host "the new show" on peapeaco. a senior adviser to the lincoln project, and from the obama administration and writer for the "boston globe" and msnbc contributor. told was a great panel. and details here. reading, butler, bucks county, monitorsville, all in
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pennsylvania. also washington, michigan, dubuque, iowa, hickory, north carolina. rome, georgia, miami, florida, then scranton, pa, kenosha, wisconsin and finally grand rapids, michigan. does any of this frenetic spring equal votes or optics in a sense? do trump rallies have the same impact they did in 2016? >> i think the president clearly seems to think so. if you recall in 2016, right up until election day, there was this same sort of flurry of big events all across including in states like michigan, and clearly the campaign thinks that that is a positive, of course, 2020 is not 2016. and while there may be some effort in some of these states, it might be successful to turn out his base, which certainly he needs, if he has a shot at winning. what is it not doing is expanding that base at all. in fact, polling shows that these rallies being held at a
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time when the pandemic is reaching record levels every single day, now more than 1,000 people are dieing each day. we see new figures of coronavirus cases every single day, higher than at any point this year. >> uh-huh. >> that's turning off people, seeing folk s come together lik this in these big crowds, seen as super spreader events and it's causing more concern than excitement. >> 100%. a bit more on the coronavirus in a second. chris, get to you on something really on the other hand with joe biden in terms of schedule. it's more measured but does have a big twist, because your old boss appearing on stage with biden in about an hour and change right now. making judgment two stops in michigan, does the barack obama star power out-strip any cross country zigzag the president might do? and if so, how and why? >> well, look. there really is kind of a democratic dream team out on the ticket now.
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you have three different principles out there doing three different messages. essentially. you've got vice president biden, who's trying to give this closing argument unifying message reaching out to both republicans and independents. you've got senator harris, really trying to reach out to people of color. younger voters and then you've got former president obama who really has taken on this unusual role as an attack dog. and that really is doing a fantastic job of firing up the base. it's also important that they are in a place like detroit, because they understand they need to get the african-american vote up. but i think what you also see in the focus on these final days, particularly in pennsylvania for the vice president, it's that he knows he has many paths to 270 electoral votes. the cleanest run now is to win back pennsylvania but also the reason why you're going to see obama and harris going out to some of these other states like north carolina and georgia, because they understand even if they don't win pennsylvania, they've got multiple other avenues. that's one of the reasons why you see this frenetic travel by
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trump. he's holding up his hand against a dam breaking in a lot of different places. >> interesting. and you've seen this movie before as a member of hillary clinton's campaign. the trump battleground sprint to the finish. what are you hearing from biden insiders about the mood? do you get a sense democrats feel the ending's going to be different this time around? >> i don't think anybody on the biden campaign is taking anything for granted. a lot of the folks who are in senior positions on the biden campaign also worked in 2016 and so we lived through that surprising trump defeat in the electoral college. one mpt big factors i want to point out that made the outcome very different in 2016 potentially is the comey letter, alex. one of the things interesting about this week is we did not see some intervening event that was a surprise that literally stopped early voting in its tracks. if you look at the data, it
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showed the comey letter stopped momentum for hillary clinton on a path to victory in the electoral college and won the popular vote as we know. i think the biden folks are confident because they are essentially trying to run through the tape, if you will, but i think that, you know, there are still a lot of red flags potentially. the president could still come out and declare a victory on election night, even if he is, there are still votes to be counted, if he's ahead earlier on in the evening. so we all must be vigilant to ensure that all of the ballots are counted, alex, because that's what democracy is about. >> uh-huh. 100% on that, too. as for donald trump, he seems to be pondering somewhat at least a different 2020 ending as well with the "washington post" reporting that as election day nears, he is facing something he despises. a loser. take a listen to what he's been saying on the trail. >> i could hop into one of them and drive it away. i'd love to just drive the hell
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out of here. just get the hell out of this. i had such a good life. my life was great. >> can you imagine if i lose? i will have lost to the worst candidate, the worst candidate in the history of presidential voting. so if aye lose what do i do? i'd rather run against somebody who's extraordinarily talented. at least this way i can go and lead my life. >> can you imagine if i lose? my whole life what am i going to do? ri i'm going to stay i lost to the worst politician in the history of politics. i'm not going to feel so good. maybe i'll have to leave the kwun country. i don't another. >> can you say what might be gob through the presidential head? >> no. i'm not good at interpreting what's going through the president's head but i think the president and the campaign are seeing that polling is not on his side. while he pulled that inside
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straight in the electoral college in 2016 wins those states particularly through the rust belt, that the bowling now is not showing that on his side. michigan in particular, that seems really out of reach. if he loses pennsylvania or florida, there's very, it's very difficult to see what path he has at all. >> yeah. >> so that clearly seems to be sinking in. so one of his strategies in the last pitch, disparage his opponent. >> so i mention we were going to pick up on the coronavirus you talked about, kimberly. and with you. the president downplaying the coronavirus at these rallies across the case, as the cases, rather, across the country. take a listen to what has been said there. >> it's always, cases are up! and people go crazy. you know? no. it's, you live with it. you know? our doctors get more money if somebody dies from covid. you know that, radio it? what they do, they say i'm sorry but everybody dies of covid. >> with or without the vaccine
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we're rounding the tush but the vaccine makes it go faster. >> are voters buying it? trump usually calls out things he doesn't like saying they're fake, they're a hoax, but coronavirus is something that affects everybody's lives right now in this country. if not around the world. i mean, he were not deny what people see is happening in their communities, to their friends, to their family. >> well, unfortunately for donald trump, we've turned a corner, but that corner led to a cliff. that's why we've had in almost a single day 100,000 cases. 1,000 people dieing a day more than 220,000 dead americans, an economy left millions of americans out of work without support and without unemployment benefits. something that donald trump can't lie his way out of and the he phyperbolize his way out of it. the coronavirus whether go grocery shopping, see people
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wearing a mask at the store, figuring out what to do with your kids, doing school remotely, figuring out child care, your own employment situation, how to fay your bills. this is something that when people see donald trump out there having these super spreader rallies, gallivanting around the country, people getting sick, him taking it likely reinforces he's the wrong person for the job and responsible for the carnage that that's virus reached across the country. why it's so different from 2016. unlikely 2016, trump had rallies a reminder to everybody out of his base he is irresponsible and that keeping him is office is actually deadly for the american public at large. you can only go so far playing only to your base all of the time and trump's about to experience those limitations. >> hmm. politico is reporting, everyone, how trump's inability to capture majority support is shedding light on extraordinary attempts to limit the number of votes cast across the battleground states. now in philadelphia, his
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campaign is videotaping voters as they return ballots. in nevada, it's suing to force election officials to more rigorously examine ballot signatures for discrepancies to disqualify them. the trump campaign sued to prevent the expanded use of ballot drop boxes in ohio. shoot town attempts to expand absentee ballot boxes in new hampshire and tried to intervene against a lawsuit brought by the navajo reservation in nevada, sought to seek after election day because of all the mail delay. is the strategy not to necessarily convince voters to vote for meep but to make it harder to have their vote counted? >> yes, that's the strategy. i like to call that cheating. normally in an election you present your message and you hope that your message is persuasive and more people show up to support you. if you are trying to restrict the number of people whose votes are actually counted, alex.
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some cases are not just prohibiting the number of drop boxes. some is trying to set aside valid ballots they've come up with an cuexcuse why they shouldn't count because potentially there would be votes for biden and kamala harris. for me, trying to rig rules in your favor we have words for that. it's called cheating. tired of using the phrase "voter suppression." sound too academic. we know what it is, if in a fair game we would call it "cheating." >> on thursday, there was some good news on the latest gdp numbers for the president to potentially focus on when campaigning in florida. yet what he ended up doing, mocking his advisers saying, ah, people don't want to talk about the economy. spent ten minutes on it. he quickly moved on to mocking republicans who advised him to do that and what did he do? lashed out at enemies, harked on the issue of hunter biden's business dealings. touting economic success?
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a tactic gop strategists are pushing the president to focus on as a closing message. why can't he do that? >> well, like a lawyer who represents himself in court, you have a fool for a client, donald trump keeps his own counsel. and you know, he's done that his entire presidency. all you hear from republicans privately is how they wish donald trump would just shut up and listen. but he's incapable of doing that. so every time he take the stage, goes up to a podium, what we're really getting an hour-long rant association of donald trump's national therapy session where he complains and whines and projects all the things disturbing and bothering him and hurting his feelings because he just reveals what a fragile guy that donald trump is. he is, you know, for all the machismo projecting, trying to come off strong and tough he's a mental midget and an emotional midget, a has problems needs a ton of therony because we see it every day.
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the fact he can't even stick to a message that might possibly work for him and would rather complain about still hillary's e-mails. she's not on the ballot, hunter biden. he's not on the ballot yet distract with this nonsense because his feelings are hurt and doesn't like what he's watching on tsh, it's even more scary he's president now. >> a great panel. start with you next chatime. thank you. zer wi r. r.l zerlana. a special on peacock. watch election night coverage tuesday kicking off at 4:00 p.m. eastern with nicolle wallace. and 6:00 p.m., steer kornacki at the big board breaking down data and brian williams, rachel
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maddow and putting it into context tuesday on msnbc. 270 electoral votes. the map change cpin changing. an answer for that. first, the president's rally in pennsylvania. we're back in a moment. [ engines revving ] ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. [ engine revs ] but you can work out anything wowith comcast business.w. get fast, reliable, and secure internet
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worth $505, was sold for less than $24; a playstation 4 for less than $16; and a schultz 4k television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. new poll numbers showing a possible shift in several battleground states. now polling averages show joe biden leading or tied with trump in six swing states. the president won those in 2016. msnbc richard lui breaking down the numbers. take it away. >> alex, the path to 270. the question. the polls tell us what might happen on the leadup to election day and then election day
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itself. many paths to get to 270. what we've done at nbc news, look at data to determine what are the ways that these two candidates can get to the magic number of 270. electoral votes. this is the map of battleground states according to nbc news. data tells us we can't determine which way or the other that these states are leaning as of today. but as we look at the numbers, if we were to add up all of these gray states that you see on the map here. how many electoral votes do they equal? you can see here. 270 is the magic number. it is 201. almost half of the 538 needed that are available. the question is, where will these go on election day? and let's look through a couple of those paths in terms of who might become the next president of the united states. okay. clear the numbers here. these are the battleground states. now what i'm going to do is looking at, again, the average of polls.
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president trump today is ahead in two states. the two states where he's up about 1 percentage point, that is -- texas and ohio. that gets him to 181. all right. so still not at 270. then all of these other states here. you see them in gray. joe biden is ahead in the average of polls. a lot of options just looking at gray states which represent those that are battleground states available. now what i'm going to do is i'm going to give joe biden all of the states where he's got over a 5% lead in the average of polls today. look at those numbers. he's up to 258. he is still short, though, of the magic 270 by 12 and president trump is short by 89. so how do you get to those numbers all said for both of the candidates? let's drill down on these. when you look at the paths to victory based on this map here, alex.
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there are seven ways for joe biden to get to 270. there is one way for donald trump to get to the white house one more time. yes, there's a possibility of a tie as well. so let's dig in to how joe biden and the seven different ways he can get there. these are they -- he can win more or less just one state to get over 270. florida. he is now the next president of the united states. pennsylvania also, 278. i can go on and on here. also georgia, if joe biden wins georgia. also, the next president of the united states. option four, just takes north carolina. option five, arizona and iowa. lots of different paths for joe biden to get over 270 and win. however, it's a much different narrative here, alex when it comes to the president. only one way for him to get there. that is if he wins all five of these states that are currently
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those who, those states that are swing. the only state he can give up or lose -- iowa. so you can see here, alex, a very, very close possibility on both sides, but joe biden has several ways. donald trump has one when you look at some of the data we have today. >> that is absolutely outstanding. looking at that. you thought this all out but let me quickly ask you about the tie. i mean -- >> had to do that. >> well, i mean, if that were to happen by just, buckle up everybody, big time. that could happen truly. do you see exactly how that would happen? don't necessarily have to show me on the map. what's in play there? >> for the tie itself, alex, it would require a very different math, but very unlikely. it is possible, though, based on this mix. when you have 269 and 269 alex, means it goes to congress. again, you remember last election. we didn't know where the delegates were going, for instance, from michigan until a
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month later when they actually cast their vote. a lot of possibilities here in that tie scenario. >> richard lui, well done. good job. thank you. joining me now democratic massachusetts congressman seth moulton and former presidential candidate and also a form 0er marine corps officer in iraq. congressman, welcome. good to see you. are you encouraged by what you just saw my friend richard putting there on the map? i mean, can you put on your analyst hat a moment? does it look good to you? >> sure. it looks good, but we still have a lot of votes that are out there. people need to show up on election day. i would say every american needs to remember two things. you see the maps and the arithmetic, got to get out and vote, no matter how much you think it's in the bag, go the to run through the tape as democrats. one thing we learned in 2016, don't take anything for granted. the second thing every american has to remember is patience. it will take time to count these votes. we may not reach the conclusion
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of that map and understand truly every state that's in, you know, the president's category or the vice president's category until well after election day. >> very good point. both of them there. so if we look at the polls average in several of the key battleground states, it shows biden or trump are very tight in places like arizona, florida, north carolina. then you have michigan and wisconsin. where the former vice president has a seven-point lead. in those states, are you confident those leads will hold? are there any states that particularly concern you? >> i just think we can't take anything for granted. >> yeah. >> states where hillary had a solid lead going into election day and we all know the results. so it's really important that everyone gets out and vote. one of the things hard to determine is, we know a lot of people are voting early. we know that turnout is well over 100% in texas, for example, already. but we don't know exactly where all of those votes fall.
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and we don't know who's shows up on election day. i'm an example of a democrat who has not voted yet. i'm going to make sure i get to a polling place on election day so that my vote is counted. and there's still a lot of those out there for both the president and the vice president. so, you can't take anything for granted in any state in the country. >> yeah. >> encouraging, many states you mentioned, out-candidates doing great. serving veterans across the country, mark kel any oorly in helping the vice president carry it over the line. >> good point. polling averages, those who haven't decided. what does joe biden need to say to making winning pitch to those voters with just three days to go? >> joe biden says it all the time. this is for the pulse of our
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nation. truly that. that's on the line here. the future of america. the america we're going to leave for our kids. i would encourage americans to think about in these final days is the president's biggest responsibility is to keep us safe. the single biggest responsibility. and this president has retreated from every opportunity to do so. we just reached 99,000 coronavirus cases in america this week. we've never had a higher total. what did the white house say? not even going to try to contain the virus again. we're retreating. for all of those americans who are out there, those voting overseas and want to make sure their ball itsds aots are count remember how the president retreated, leaving allies and causing his own secretary of defense to resign. this is a president couldn't stand a "60 minutes" interview this past weekend because it was too tough. this is a president in retreat. is that the leader that you
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want? the leader you think can heal this divided nation? i don't think so. when i look at joe biden i see is a leader who unified the american people his entire career and together with senator harris this is a community ticket. a ticket to bring together the coalition to win on this election, but also bring together the coalition to make america stronger for our kids. and fundamentally just heal a nation that is so divided right now. it's never been more divided in my lifetime. that's the unifying nation we need. my pimp to ttch to undecided vot there it's a good one. you hit it home. get out there and vote. >> thank you. heading to ohio where a group of voters to help determine who's winning on election night. selected the president's winner every year since 1964, one of
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the oldest bellwether in the country. we find you there, can you gauge where this thing may go? not asking you to predict. don't worry. >> reporter: i know. 9 predictions are out the window at this point, alex. mostly i think voters are really anxious. i heard that earlier in the program with another guest. show you the voters in line now in early voting. a couple days left and the line is shorter than yesterday. yesterday hearing it was as much as two hours. about half an hour today. so far this is early voting, early voting up, alex. absentee ballots are also up. double from what you saw in 2016. show you those numbers. 1.4 million ballots submitted absentee versus 700,000 in 2016. of course, all of this is with the backdrop what's happening with the coronavirus in this state. this county here in ottawa county, experiencing another spike as well.
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going into the red zone right now. show you exactly how the state of ohio is doing and the governor reporting a record high new cases in a single day reported. so people are systtill coming o trying to socially distance and we talked about who they trust to turn the coronavirus numbers around. listen in. >> i don't really trust many candidates to bring any of those numbers around. it's something everybody's going to get. >> trump. trump all the way. >> reporter: why? >> because he has, he's had a game plan and he's sticking to it and the vaccine, warp speed on that. he's got a lot of -- good scientists behind him and good companies. >> biden. >> reporter: why is that? >> he has more of a plan on -- doing more stuff, trump thinks it's going to go away next tuesday be done.
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>> reporter: if you look at trump's elections, you see them all gathering in the same building. no masks, no five-feet distance. look at bidens, they're everywhere. like, they're in a whole parking lot and stuff like that, wearing all masks. >> reporter: now, using what we're seeing here as a real world example what might happen near ottawa county look at signs we got yesterday. split 50/50. a lot of trump and biden signs. couldn't pass a house that didn't have a sign in it. people are very engaged in this county. looking forward to the election results coming in election night on tuesday. >> absolutely. nice, often we talk about the weather and whether that's a factor. if people are able to get out and vote. it looks beautiful there. so many other things to talk about, haven't even talked about the weather wreaking havoc. looks good there, cori coffin. thank you. and with record early voting numbers estimated as many as 87 million as of today, democrats
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are concerned trending across to battleground states. "new york times" reports low turnout among latino democrats in florida. and three out of four black voters have not voted yet in pennsylvania. and may be slower to return mail ballots. joining me now, ben jealous, former naacp president and ceo and president for the people for the american way. good to see you, ben. these eschherb issues are big, battleground states. does it concern you and do these results seem plausible with crazy early line voting lines we've been seeing? >> it's, you know, who turns out on election day will be interesting. we've been focused on reaching every single black man under 50 who's an unlikely voter in 25 states including pennsylvania and florida. we've reached 90% of them. engaged almost 10% about how to vote where to vote.
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convened on town hall meetings founder are extremely excited to vote. so i do think what we will see on, you know, is that turnout will remain high, and you'll see different demographics turn out at different points during this week. frankly, folk whose often have to work the weekend or work two or three jobs may wait to the very last minute to vote. >> yeah. pick up along the "how to vote" issue. an issue with reports today that ballots from black, hispanic, also younger voters in florida, are now being flagged for rejectionality alitt a higher r others mostly because of signature issues. what does that say to you? >> ever since the voting rights act got gutted we've seen republicans throw up bearrier after barrier to voting to make it harder and harder and harder. and it's the -- the president's clear more people vote sdg not help his party.
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he's well aware he lost the popular vote and appears to be very aware he could lose states that he won last time. in fact, several of them. so 33 republican governors in the country and most of them have tried to invent some new way to make it more difficult for people to vote when, frankly, vote by mail should be making it easier for everyone. >> what about with the president picking up this week? the endorsement of lil wayne? nore celebly rapper. 50 cent, ice cube. previously indicated some level of outreach for trump. how far does this take trump with black male voters? those that you've been reaching out to? >> you know, trump's had four years to convince black men he actually give as damn about us and he's failed on every score. what we've seen him encourage racists, encourage cops to kill us and frankly tolerate a -- situation with covid where our
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death rate is certainly from my democrat graphic, black men 35 to 54. and i think most are pretty clear. i don't think anybody is looking to lil wayne for who to vote for. >> okay, ben jealous. thank you. always good to see you, my friend. thanks for joining me. a huge number of ballots not return returned. raising real concern. we'll take you there, next. ou ! with this seal, this restaurant is committing to higher levels of cleanliness. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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all right. we take you live to newtown, pennsylvania, where the president is making his second of four stops in the keystone state today. we are going to keep a control booth ear on that one. listen in just a minute. he's just getting going. so we will do a little bit of other news here but definitely take you back there in just a bit. we have georgia officials sounding the alarm with now just three days to election day, because more than half a million voters have not returned their absentee ballots. nbc's priscilla thompson joins us from decatur, georgia. what's going on? can the ball it's still make it? >> reporter: good news is those ballots can still make it in. as we're hearing from officials across the country folks cannot mail them in at this point. likely they won't make it at this time instead show up at
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drop boxes. cars eager to get the ballots in today and dropping them off there or at county registrar's office. georgia has sent out more than 1.7 million mail-in ballots. only about 65% have been returned. hundreds of thousands of these still need to be returned before election day. i spoke to one woman who showed up at this ballot box to puturn hers in today. very much on her mind. listen to what she said. >> first thing, soon as i got up this morning i jumped up, threw on something and i headed here. so -- i knew -- it's definitely important. honestly, this is my second time voting, ever. i'll be honest about that. i voted for barack obama. and with this president in place, he's not a president for our country. >> reporter: so there you have it. voters here certainly feeling that urgency to get those ballots in and they have until
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polls close on tuesday. so 7:00 p.m. tuesday to do it. after that, anybody ballots returned by absentee or maiml-i >> appreciate if from georgia. as promised back to the president in newturn to. >> -- that will save the american dream. [ cheers and applause ] on november 3rd we're going to win pennsylvania and we are going to win four more years in that very beautiful white house. we're gathered today in a very special place. in the harrowing days of december 1776 when the american revolution seemed lost, general george washington made his headquarters at this bucks county farmhouse to plan his famous crossing of the delaware. on christmas night he led what
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remained and just remained very little remained, of that ragtag continental army on a daring midnight raid. it was a tough night. it was a violent night. they marched through nine miles of ice and snow. many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. at dawn they seized victory at trenton. their sacrifice turned the entire tide of the war. those soldiers came from every walk of life, but what united them all was their devotion to the principle of self-government. they were determined to live in a current where -- >> okay, everyone. we'll monitor it. his first rally of the day. running a little late bleeding into his schedule that might have led into a second one. that is his first rally today. three more in the keystone state for the president. about an hour from now,
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president barack obama will join joe biden on the campaign trail. first of two events in michigan today marking their first time together on the 2020 presidential trail. my next guest is the author of the new book "joe biden: the life, the run and what matters now." joining me now, staff writer at "the new yorker." evan, big welcome. a timely book. as these two real titans, really, in democratic politics prepare to campaign together, give me some insight into the private mechanics of their relationship? what have you learned about the vice president from talking with the former president? >> yeah. one of the things i find most interesting, on understanding this period of democratic politics. look, they were, after all, a real odd couple at the beginning. they're separated by 19 years and totally different generations and background experiences. frankly, each one came in a little wary of the other. from his first moment when obama first saw biden in the senate, back in 2004, obama slipped a
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note to his aide seated with him listening to biden talk a little longer than we wanted. obama had written "shoot me now." then he came to rb what joe biden brought to experience in foreign affairs and understanding how to do things in washington. one. reasons barack obama tasked him with overseeing implementation of the stimulus bill, after all, an understanding of levers of power. you understood biden had a different view of obama than in the beginning. frankly he thought when first joined the ticket, he told people at the white house, i still think i'm the best man for the job. but after watching obama a few moss and watching his discipline, frankly, level of preparation. the way he would read briefing books into the night, it changed joe biden's sense what it meant to be at that level of power and what was required and said to an aide in the white house after a few months frankly i was wrong.
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the best man won and i'm honored to help him succeed. >> remarkable. the two certainly appear to have gotten so close over their eight years working side-by-side. do you get a sense that president obama is campaigning more to get joe biden elected or to defeat donald trump? >> those two are, you know, sort of intertwined completely, but i think it's fundamental to obama's understanding to the future of this country that the things those two worked so hard for eight years in office are not dismantled. and you know, what you hear when i spoke to obama over the summer talking about biden's candidacy, what he said to knme was, look. we all know this is a moment in which the unite simply faces such a fundamental set of structural changes it's not just covid or the economy. it is also the kind of issues that we began the work of doing. but he didn't jerk on it. reality is, of course, they are
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in peril and other things under donald trump. >> i'm curious as we're he in the final stretch of this campaign, what do you see from joe biden here in 2020 as compared to previous years, his signature kind of off the cuff style? how has it evolved? >> what i find fascinating is, we don't talk about it very much, frankly, is the way that the death of his son beau really changed him as a person. we all know he was close but it was an extraordinary relationship. joe biden used to tell people beau biden had all of my best quality is and none of my worst. when beau died somebody working in the white house said, to be blunt, killed off an arrogant side of joe biden. the old kind of college football player piece of him. the senator, blustery, still there. he became a much quieter more reflective person. a person who never asked honestly to be thrust into the position of being the impact
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except he found himself, people stopping him on rope lines saying i've been through hell and you have and help me. how do i do this? he found himself in that position with history had pushed on him and he had to embrace it. that's the more, i'd say the more settled man that you see today. a different person than ran for president 12 years ago. >> back it up i was anchoring actually the day of the funeral of beau biden, and it just was a hard thing to keep the tears. because i saw and felt the pain of joe biden. it was a profound loss for him. a very good point that you picked up on. thank you so much for joining us. wish we could talk more, but guaranteed we'll do it again. thank you. and when joe biden and former president barack obama, they're getting ready to appear together in michigan. bring that to you live and soon, take you rye out in, to the president speaking again in newtown, pennsylvania. a little listen before we go to a break.
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>> and if i don't like look a typical politician, that's very simple. it's because i'm not a politician. [ cheers and applause ] if i don't always play by the rules of washington and the washington establishment, it's because i was elected to fight for you and i fought harder for you than any president in the history of our country. ll set . thanks! that was my business gi, this one's casual. get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks.
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