across america at this hour, signs of democracy and millions of voters meeting and feeling this week of history, with a ripple of anxiety and anticipation. the president in the thick of a five-day stop. here he is in michigan. this is a live picture. and before midnight, it is iowa, north carolina, georgia, and florida. the biden camp fanning out this weekend, as well, with a blitz through battlegrounds. joe biden, kamala harris, and former president obama all in action. a slew of new polls in key swing states that give us a glimpse of what might transpire on tuesday. can they be trusted this time? and then there's this. the first election day, polling places open in 42 hours, and close as early as 53 hours from now. florida, that's you, and pennsylvania, polls there closing in 54 hours. the clock is ticking loudly.

good day, everyone. from msnbc world headquarters here in new york, welcome to "weekends with alex witt." right here and likely there where you are, the air is electric on this 1st of november, 2020, as we count down to election day. this is it, everyone, with just two days to go, it is a sprint to the finish line. 55 hours from right now, the first polls will close and both candidates are not wasting one minute on the campaign trail. today, biden is focusing all of his efforts in pennsylvania, while senator kamala harris jumps to georgia and north carolina. she's, in fact, just land there had in georgia. trump, on the other hand, blitzing through five battleground states today, and as the candidates kris cross this country, their top advisers appearing on the sunday shows, both painting a confident picture. >> we feel very good about where we're going. and the fact of the matter is,

is that joe biden does not excite his base. so when you take the lack of enthusiasm for joe biden and the media and democratic suppression for their voters on election day, we think our turnout will deliver president trump a victory. >> the trump campaign obviously, they're going to say they feel good. they're going to say they feel like they can carry everything they did in 2016. but if you look at the enormous enthusiasm that we've seen in the early vote, these record-setting early vote numbers, people are going to vote. >> well, several new polls out today give us one final look at where this race stands. polling from nbc news and "the wall street journal" shows in a matchup between the president and joe biden the former vice president leads the current president nationally by a ten-point margin, 52-42. not much change from last month's 53-42 biden lead. in the critical battleground states, a poll from "the new york times" and siena college shows biden leading trump in four key states, up by six

points in arizona, three in florida, six in pennsylvania, and 11 points in wisconsin. and a new poll from the "des moines register" shows trump leading biden by seven points in iowa. so now for the very latest, we have a team of reporters deployed across this country and a panel of experts to provide perspective. we'll go first to the crucial swing state, pennsylvania, where joe biden will spend the final days of his campaign starting with two stops in philadelphia today. my colleague, nbc's jeff bennett is there for us. jeff, good, exciting sunday to you, my friend. pennsylvania is essential to biden. what do we expect to see from him in these final two days? >> reporter: alex, it is great to be with you this sunday before election day. look, with two days to go, pennsylvania has emerged as the center of the political universe, with its highly coveted and hotly contested 20 electoral votes. joe biden, as i know you know, kicked off his campaign back in april, here in pennsylvania and he's on track really to end the

campaign here in pennsylvania, both today and tomorrow. tomorrow, he and senator kamala harris and their spouses will barn storm the state. and look, even though polling averages put joe biden ahead and he has been ahead here for weeks, the margin is not wide enough for democrats to feel safe. that is one of the reasons why he has two events here in philadelphia today. he has a souls to the polls event, where he's going to appear at a church. and he has another drive-in campaign rally scheduled here, as well. that said, though, the biden campaign still believes they have multiple patz to the presidency. here's what anita dunn said this morning on a sunday show. she's a former biden official, turned -- former obama official turned obama campaign adviser. take a listen to what she had to say. >> as we've gotten closer to the election, instead of the number of contested battleground states shrinking, which is normally what you see at this point in a campaign, george, you know that, the number has actually

expanded, so that we are now campaigning also in georgia. in iowa, in ohio. senator harris was in texas on friday. that our map has expanded. >> reporter: and when you hear her talk about georgia, as you mentioned alex, senator kamala harris is in georgia today where democrats also have a competitive senate race, so they're trying to shore up support there. but back here in pennsylvania, democrats are worried about a few things. one, any sort of potential problems with mail-in ballots. two, a potential surge in white rural voters who might be more inclined to vote for president trump on the day of the election. and thirdly, this push by republicans here in the state legislature and the gop more broadly, both the trump campaign and the gop national political apparatus to limit voting, to intentionally disenfranchise voters who they might think won't be as favorable to them. >> lots to take this in there.

thanks so much, jeff bennett opinion. the president starting his day at a rally in michigan, a crucial campaign state and this comes as michigan reports its highest single-day total of new covid-19 cases. that was yesterday. nbc's monica alba is joining us from washington, michigan, right now. monica, welcome to you. is there any sense of covid concern among those that are attending the rally, or have you heard about this from the president himself as he speaks? >> reporter: no concern from the thousands of supporters who are here, alex, in snowy conditions in washington, michigan. if anything, they seem a little bit more worried about their exposure to the cold, less so the virus. the president has been on stage now for about 40 minutes. he himself referring to the colder-than-normal temperatures that he is used to, even joking that he doesn't feel he has the right coat and wrapping his arms around himself, saying he's shivering and not very pleased

with his advance team has him advance team that has him speaking directly into the very blistering, cold wind. but here, the president claims to falsely claim that a potential joe biden administration would mean a vaccine for coronavirus would be delayed, that the pandemic would be prolonged. there's no evidence of that. the joe biden campaign has made the coronavirus a centerpiece of his pitch to voters, while the president has made a concerted effort in the last couple of days to dismiss what he calls covid, covid, covid as a simple media obsession. he has not referenced those records of cases. and i have been here in michigan now for four days and they have seen hikgh infections surge evey single day. we talk about how critical the race is here. the president won this state by the most narrow margin of any in

2016. it fueled his victory and led him to the white house, but he's currently behind in all of the polling in the state of michigan, trailing former vice president joe biden. his campaign advisers telling me they're feeling more optimistic about other states like florida, north carolina. they are less sure about michigan and wisconsin, but that is why you're seeing him spend so much time here in michigan, trying to make that final push. he was here on friday, kicking off his five rallies here today and he'll be back tomorrow night, alex. he'll close out the entirety of his campaign cycle in grand rapids, michigan, which is where he was, exactly four years ago, and when he did that, he's a little bit superstitious and nostalgic, we understand. and that's why the campaign decided to do that. the campaign feeling a little bit more bullish about the sun belt strategy versus the rust beth belt at this point in time. >> he goes from there to iowa where he's up in the "des moines register" poll today. thank you for that from a very chilly, washington, michigan there. joining me now, peter baker,

white house correspondent for "the new york times" and nbc analyst, tessa barrenstein, skpn john callaway, founder of national voter protection action fund, and david jolly, former florida congressman and an msnbc political contributor. welcome all. let's get into it. peter, i'll start with you here. a couple days now before the election. when you look at the state of the polls and compare them with the numbers that were leading up to election night in 2016, do you get a sense of where things stand today? >> look, the polls have been really consistent with the exception of that iowa poll from the "des moines register." they have shown consistent, stable leads for vice president biden, certainly at the national level, greater than what hillary clinton had going into the final days of her election four years ago. and in many of these battleground states as well. for biden, there are so many different paths to winning. if he wins, he only needs to pick up florida or arizona or georgia and have make sure he

has that nebraska district. more trump, he has to basically run the table of the states that are on the edge right now. could he do that? of course he could do that. obviously, a lot of people in his camp are holding on to the hope that he could reproduce the magic of four years ago. the bigger suspense, though, it seems at this point to me is which votes get counted? what's going to happen once they start having this litigation about throwing out these ballots or those ballots. you already saw in texas an effort to throw out 100,000 ballots that were collected on curbside drop-off in the days before the election. that seems to me to be the real suspense of this election at this point. >> i agree with that. let's take a listen together to trump campaign senior adviser jason miller who's talking about how they feel about tuesday night. >> we feel very good. we think that president trump is going to hold off of the sun belt states that he won previously. and as you look to the upper midwest, joe biden has to stop

president trump in four out of four states. pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, minnesota. if president trump wins just one of those in three of the four he won last time, he will be a re-elected president. >> i'm curious your reaction to this, peter, this kind of mechanism. is it meant to offset some of the president's lagging poll numbers? what's your sense of what the trump team is thinking behind the scenes of what could happen on tuesday? >> look, i think most of trump's people understand that they're in a dire situation here. they're not really expecting to win on tuesday. you know, they see the polls like everybody else. again, they're holding on to hope, because that's what complains that are trailing do. they're holding on to the idea that something will happen. and there's no question that the election day turnout itself is critical to trump's chances here. that the pre-election voting has been going on in massive numbers, 90 million people so far have voted, have, according to polls been more tilt t towards biden than trump. and what trump needs more than anything is to motivate these people who support him to come out on tuesday, since that's

where he's going to get the bulk of his voting. that's where you see them keeping up optimistic face. >> don miller also had something interesting to say, believing that the president will have more than 290 electoral votes on election night. let's take a look at this interesting demographic breakdown that he provided. >> president trump is going to get well over 10% of the black vote. i think he'll get over 20% of african-american men. president trump will probably get 40% of the latino vote. the entire demographic shift within these parties, it's a different world. >> do you buy that, john? what are they seeing that everybody else isn't? >> i hate to be that guy to speak for the whole tribe, but jason miller should do best to keep our names out of his mouth. he has absolutely no concept of what's happening in black america or black male america. i love lil' wayne as an artist, but he does not speak for us, nor does kanye west.

if we could have a keep it real moment, alex, the idea that a jason miller, a stephen miller, a sebastian gorka, these people will no longer -- a jared kushner. the idea that they will no longer have the ear of the leader of the free world on january 20th is something that i so look forward to. and peter is right about suppression and disruption and not counting being part of -- an essential part of trump's path to victory on tuesday. but i am so excited that these morons of the world like jason miller, these are the types of folks who should never have any proximity to the highest realms of government. and i'm so happy to see them john in january. >> you're speaking your truth and that's cool on this show, but i want to ask you in terms of reaching to 90 electoral votes on tuesday night, based on what you're seeing. is the path as feasible as the campaign's portraying to be or is it going to be a lot more challenging this time around? >> it's not. you have to remember that

pennsylvania, wisconsin, and what am i thinking, the third one, were decided between 70,000 votes collective with michigan. they were decided between 70,000 votes collectively. there's no way without an aggressive voter suppression strategy, there's no way that the president wins or is even competitive in those states. i know that national polling, biden is way ahead. but there is a certain tipping point around 4.5 to 5% at which it's actually insurmountable. voter suppression is a part of his strategy, because the strategy is to cheat. the strategy is to not count votes that might come in after election day, regardless of when they were postmarked. there's no path to 290 for this president. and he knows it, and that's why you see senators like ben sasse and john cornyn jumping ship ahead of time. >> we had the white house releasing a statement a short time ago and it refuses dr. fauci of playing politics and it comes in response of dr. fauci's

blunt assessment. what do you make of dr. fauci's timing, saying things like, we're in for a whole lot of hurt, it's not a good situation, especially with the president's closing message being, as you wrote in your piece, by the way, ignore covid-19. >> right, i mean, i think fauci's timing, we can look at it in relation to the election on tuesday, but we can also look at it in the reality of we're in the middle of the fall and we're heading into the winter and we've known for a long time that this could be very difficult winter with covid. and you know, we were just talking about jason miller's optimism and the trump campaign's optimism. but i think, yes, they are being optimistic about their path to victory, but also projecting this optimism that sort of ignores the reality of covid. we're in the middle of our worst spike since this pandemic began. and president trump's closing message is basically telling americans to look beyond that and it's going to get better soon and their vaccine is almost here and we're rounding the

turn. there's not evidence that that's the case. but trump and his campaign are betting that americans are just really tired of living with this virus for eight or nine months and they're going to firespond this more hopeful, positive message, even though it's not actually based in reality. >> congressman jolley, the president is coming to your state today, florida there up with of five stops on his schedule. tell me about the pulse on the ground and any concern about holding these big rallies in the face of health officials' warnings. >> look, republicans have abandoned any concern about the public health consequences of a donald trump rally. and that includes in the state of florida. and look, donald trump has performed very well in florida. if you are in jason miller's shoes today, if you put that in the context of florida, i hate to try to interpret his optimism, but i will, for the sake of conversation here. you have a candidate who is in an historically weak position. he's never gone over 50% in

anything, right? he lost the popular vote, but won the electoral college. his fave/unfave remains upside down. he continues to poll below 50%. and so how do you get that candidate there? look, jason seemed to say this morning, if we just do what we did in 2016, we'll win. but that's very hard to do. you know you have to win florida. and alex, i would tell you that republicans believe the trend is their friend in florida. and that it is not so much measuring the early voters versus the election day voters. because that's just a math equation. the question is, new voters or not. and the question is, new voters, even though they seem to be trending towards democrats, republicans seem optimistic. so to have polls that have florida within three instead of six or seven gives reason for optimism for the likes of jason miller and others. it's still an historic uphill climb. and you would rather be in joe biden's position two days before the election than donald trump's. some of the optimism is manufactured to keep their troops together, to keep moral up. but they do see a way to thread the needle this election, as

they did in 2016. it's just going to be much harder this second time around. >> tessa, looking at reporting about the president's rallies, you say the trump team is using them to help with their ground game. how so? >> right, well, so the trump campaign's been doing this all the way along. they have zeroed in on trump's ability to draw these huge crowds, as kind of a key ingredient in his secret sauce that led to the upset victory last time. and what they're doing is basically not only all of the people who attend each of his rallies, but everyone who registers to go, which can sometimes be twice the number of those who actually show up, they get the contact information for those voters and both the rnc and the trump campaign follow up with everyone who registered to go to his rallies, get them registered, and urge them to go to the polls. it gets who what multiple of panelists on this segment have been saying, which is that turnout on election day is going to be key if president trump is

going to win. the rnc knows that, the campaign knows that, and they're hoping to turn these rallies into an actual mechanism to register new voters and get people to the polls. >> and that is consistently what we've been hearing from the president. congressman, back to you as the trump campaign is making the argument that democrats are going to pay the price for all the worngs that the public should stay home, they should be safe from covid, they should vote absentee. why are they saying that? do you agree? >> i think anything they can do that sews confusion and doubt about the election helps republicans. the more people who vote, the better democrats and joe biden do. so that feeds into this. at the same time, they're running a mobilization effort at the same time saying, get out there and vote. they're trying to have it both ways. i want to comment on one part of this conversation very briefly and quickly, because it's important. republicans in florida and across the country do believe if

they can move the needle of black voters to 10% to double digits, they can win the whole state. we often think of a voting demographic of who can get 51 to 49. who can get a majority. when you perform as poorly as voters do among voters of color, 4 to 5%, a move to 10% is now a significant move for your voters and they are optimistic. >> if i could just point out very quickly, the congressman is absolutely correct about florida, but you cannot have a conversation about black voters in florida without remembering in 2018, amendment four passed and governor ron desantis and the republican legislature in florida did everything they could to re-disenfranchise those former felons by piling up all sorts of tees and further poll taxes to create another obstacle between their right to vote and the ballot box. you can't talk about black voter participation in florida without reminding us there were 500,000 or maybe more floridians who

will be re-disenfranchised. >> and i think david is also probably looking at the latino vote and the concerns about underperforming for joe biden in miami-dade county. that may be something. listen, guys, quickly before i let you go, all of you, is there one state that you are watching most closely? that is your bellwether for the outcome of tuesday. each of you, give me one state. peter, you first. i think we lost peter. that's a bummer. thanks, peter, for joining us. let me go to you, tessa. >> pennsylvania, but michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania. >> okay, you got in more than one, but that's cool. i'd do the same thing. don, how about you? >> north carolina, cal cunningham and the former vice president wins the presidential. >> david, you? >> watch all the attorneys rush to north carolina. >> okay. well said, all of you. thank you very much, it's a great time to have you on. appreciate it. for all of you tonight wuk join

msnbc for back-to-back election specials at 7:00 p.m. eastern. 8:00 p.m. eastern brings you brian williams, rachel maddow, joy reid and nicole wallace previewing what to watch on election day. and at 10:00 p.m. eastern, the inimitable, the wonderful steve kornacki breaks down the latest polling data and the outcome scenarios at the big board for you. it all starts tonight, 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. tensions in texas. supporters of the president accused of swarming a biden campaign bus. the video and the fallout next on that. meanwhile, as we're showing you, the president still in michigan talking. take a listen and we will take a break. >> -- i don't think so. they did that four years ago and i won in a landslide, right? they said, texas is too close to call. the doors closed. donald trump has won texas. what the hell happened. they said it with utah. remember t

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go to stamps.com/save and never go to the post office again senator kamala harris heading to north carolina after touching down in georgia, just a bit earlier. she took part in a get-out-the-vote event in gwinnett county right near atlanta and here's a bit of what she said. >> hey, guys! it's good to be back in georgia! well, you know. it's kind of, it works for the moment. it's comfortable. it's good to be back in georgia and obviously, the election is very near in terms of election day and we're here to remind georgians of the importance of their vote and of course, the significance of what joe and i care about in the lives of the people of this state, in terms of a state that has been so hard

hit, in terms of the virus and the public health impact, as well as the economic impact on georgian families. so, happy to be back. >> senator, what does this say about [ inaudible ] twice in the last few days? >> it says that this race is very much happening and the election is around the corner and georgia is an important state and the people of this state have a lot at stake in terms of the outcome of this election. and so, we're here and i'm here to listen and to let them know what we're thinking about them and we have policies and plans that will impact them in a very positive way. >> senator harris, black voters obviously are a critical part of making joe biden the nominee in the primary process. are you confident that black turnout will be where it needs to be on tuesday, particularly in those midwestern, upper midwest states, like they were last time? >> let me just tell you, first of all, we are not telling anybody they're supposed to vote for us. we have to earn the vote of every person.

and that means having policies that are relevant to the people that we are talking with. and so as it relates to the african-american community, throughout the country, it is not a monolith. there are many issues that are important. there are issues, yes, that are about criminal justice reform. there are issues about economic issues, in terms of access to capital. the disproportionate impact of covid on the black community, when black folks are three times as likely to attract covid, twice as likely to die from it, the impact in our education system and the disparities that exist there, that have long exi existed, so we are talking to all communities, but understanding the black community has very specific needs. mostly in terms of disproportionate impact and disparities that have long existed that need to be corrected by policies that promote equity and equitable skbroum outco outcomes. >> last question. >> maybe the campaign has done -- >> that's a first! >> -- do you think the campaign has done enough to get that

message down at street level? >> i think that we always can do more. there's no question about that. until every person has been heard and has heard what we have to say, i think our job is a job that is ongoing. and so that's why i'm here. that's why i'm here. >> thank you, all. >> thank you, all. >> okay. kamala harris on the tarmac there in georgia. let's go now to texas, because the fbi is investigating this scene, there you see, it was a caravan of trump supporters that surrounded a biden bus on the expressway and that forced the campaign to cancel three events on friday. look at that! it comes as more than 9.5 million texasns voted early, smashing records. and as texas passes california, in fact, for most coronavirus cases, despite their smaller population. we have nbc news reporters across the country for you.

let's go right now to garrett haake in houston. garrett, this is a pretty stunning situation in texas from a couple of days ago. what happened with that bus? >> alex, well, in regards to the bus, we had a -- this was a bus tour of the state being done by biden surrogates. they had been making their way through the various media markets on texas. that was on i-35, just outside of austin when they were surrounded by this pro-trump caravan. we have seen caravans like this all over the state, all over the country the last several weeks. there was an incident where a truck in that caravan appeared to collide with a staffer's car. a staffer for the biden campaign. the biden campaign said they called local authorities and were escorted to their final event in austin, and decided to go ahead and cancel that because they were worried about the possibility of political violence. it speaks to the fact that texas long an afterthought in presidential politics, is really anything but this year. i'm reporting right now from the epicenter of that in harris county, this is the houston

area. this is their election headquarters here, folks who are running elections in the city of houston are coming to pick up their supplies, be ready for another expected surge in turnout come tuesday. we've had more than 1.5 million votes cast in that county already. it has blown the doors off even aggressive expectations of turnout in texas. and that really has both campaigns a little bit wondering about what this is going to look like. you know, they modeled turnout, they modeled partisanship in a state like texas. you think you know what might happen, but with the turnout and the interest level as extraordinary as it has been, both campaigns, to a certain degree or just kind of waiting to see what happens come tuesday her here. >> very agitated. you know how angry he is? he's so angry. you know why he's angry? because he's losing, that's why he's angry. he's very agitated. >> you see the way our people, you know, they were protecting his bus yesterday, because

they're nice. so his bus -- they had hundreds of cars, trump, trump -- trump and the american flag. that's -- you see trump and the american flag. do you ever notice when you see the other side, i don't even see much of the either side. >> reporter: alex, so there you hear the president embracing the tactics used by his supporters here, that really have concerned frankly a lot of people, including anybody else who was on that highway. and i think the way to think about this is the enthusiasm gap that the president describes here, you know, you haven't had big campaign events by the biden/harris campaign, really anywhere on purpose. they've really only been in texas more that last day on friday, kamala harris was here, joe biden was not. but the pictures i compare it to are some of those early vote pictures. the long, long lines in a place like harris county. really the democratic stronghold in this state, as a marker of enthusiasm that may be one to counterbalance what the president is describing. >> we shall see, shall we, in

the lone star state. joining me right now, dan rather, current president of news and guts media, host of the big interview on axs tv. and the co-author of what unites us, reflections on patriotism, a book i have to say, dan, that my father absolutely loves. that having been said, i want to say happy birthday to you. i know you celebrated that yesterday. >> thank you. >> you were born and raised in texas, so i'm wondering what you think about this bus incident on highway i-35, i believe garrett said it was outside of austin. we know it's hayes county. have you ever seen anything like that? what do you think was behind it? >> well, it's very hard to tell. there's so much that we don't know about this, but what we doe know is this was an effort to intimidate. whether any laws were broken or not is open to question. the city manager where this happened said no laws were broken. we'll have to see. the trump campaign is going to try to intimidate voters.

and this is an open effort to intimidate, and so you know, so the president has now supported it and his son has come out in favor of it. this is a message all around. don't go to the polls and mess with votes unless you're going to vote with us. in the great scheme of things, it's probably not going amount to much, except insofar as if it's a potent of what's to come on vote day, on tuesday, then it dpe gets to be an important story. otherwise, it fades into the mist. for those wondering, what hell is going on in texas, this is unprecedented, this turnout. and anybody who tells you, they know how it's going to break, you should dismiss immediately. the democrats believe that there is a scalding hot tight race here in texas. the trump people are convinced that they have a very comfortable margin. with an extremely large voter turnout, there's never been anything like this in texas

history. no one can say, but i will say as of this moment, texas may be watching on tuesday, i kite agree that the essential states to watch are pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, and minnesota, because donald trump, if he wins one of those, he's very much in the hunt. if he loses all of them, flothes no way he can win. >> dan, how confident are you that every single vote in texas will be counted? >> well, you can never be confident of that in texas. texas has a long history, as do a lot of other state, that there are people in the state who know how to cheat and steal votes. whether that will actually occur or not, but we always have to be alert to it. one of the great senate races of all times in 1948 race in which lyndon johnson won by fewer than a hundred votes, no one can be confident that all votes will be counted. i will say this, though. i think it's very important for everybody, whether they're republican or democrat or whatever they may be, that

overall, we maintain confidence in the integrity of the votes. will every vote be counted? probably not. will some votes be stolen? will some elections in certain sections be open to question, yes. but it's really important that we hundreds, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people involved in our election process. and in the end, i am confident we will know who got the most votes. so that means on vote day, on tuesday, we may not, what's usually called election night. i've called it last voting day, it may be hours, it hab days, it may be weeks before we finally, it's determined who won and who lost. once it is determined that somebody won and somebody lost, then the critical hour comes when the losing side will accept it or not. frankly, i have my doubts, but let's be patient, hold steady, and hold on to hope. >> dan, if only.

but when you have your doubts, do you also have fears for election day and violence can be concerns about bad behavior? >> well, you have to have concerns. i prefer to say concerns. texans are raised to never have fear of anything except hurricanes and god. soy am concerned about it. and i think every thinking person should be concerned about it, but we should not get so concerned that our expectations come true. i do think that there's a great deal in more potential for violence on voting day and after voting day than there's been on any vote day of my lifetime. 1968, for example, the '60s were a very tumultuous time. the humphrey/nixon battle for the presidency in 1968 was hard fought. but nobody at that time has had to work violence in the way for the vote. these concerns, as you put them, are unprecedented. but based on the president's

actions and that many members of these parties want to say that they're valid. >> you know, you mentioned the summer of 1968 and you were right there in the thick of everything, certainly some of our viewers may be too young to remember it, but it was a chaotic political season, rough tou stuff, dan, inside the conventions. protests and police beatings outside, but let's watch this part of your broadcast and exchange with walter cronkite. >> don't push me! take your hands off me unless you plan to arrest me. >> wait a minute. wait a minute! >> walter, as you can see -- >> i don't know what's going on, but this -- these are security people, apparently, around dan. >> this is the kind of thing that's been going on outside the hall. this is the first time we've had it happen inside the hall. i'm sorry to be out of breath, but somebody belted me in the stomach during that. and at that instant, the security people, well, as you can see, put me on the deck.

i didn't do very well. eni i think we've got a bunch of thugs here. >> actually, dan, you did great there. does 2020 feel like 1968 to you? help us catch the mood of the country now versus then. do you see parallels? >> well, there definitely are some parallels. there's been a lot of violence in the country, widespread race riots in the country, anti-war demonstrations, however. when we got to voting day itself, there wasn't very much violence and fears of violence breaking out prove to be untrue. i will say the biggest similarity between what we're going through now and 1968 is in 1968, a lot of americans were just fed up with having to worry all the time. as heather cox remind us today, i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. that was the mood of a lot of americans in 1968. and i would say that that is

parallel with today. there are an awful lot of americans who say today, i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. we need to get the country back on the way to solving these problems. whether or not it will be decisive in this election or not, we have to wait and see. in 1968, it was decisive that the country wanted change and they changed from the democratic president, lyndon johnson presidency. we'll see if that can be the case this time. >> your sage words of wisdom and experience, dan rather, thank you very much. very good to see you, my friend. appreciate it. and all of you, be sure to watch our election coverage on tuesday. it kicks off at 4:00 p.m. eastern with nicole wallace followed by chris hayes at 5:00. then at 6:00, steve kornacki will be at the big board. joy reed, rachel maddow, brian williams will put it in context for you. it's in two days here on msnbc. meantime, in tflorida, it's

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transitions. hey, there. craig melvin here. we are just a few hours away from the end of voting. one of the things i'll be looking at closely on election day and into election night, shifting demographics in this country. demographics shifting in places like georgia, places like florida, places like north carolina, even south carolina. what might those demographic shifts, what might they mean, not just for the presidential contest, but some of these closely watched senate races, as well? i'll be looking at that. >> and we're glad to hear that from craig melvin, my colleague there. there's a new poll out of florida which shows the president and joe biden in a dead heat. trump ahead by two, but within the margin of error. and today is the last chance for florida voters to have their voices heard ahead of election

day. but it's all happening as the state reported more than 2,300 new coronavirus cases on friday. the positivity rate now, 8%. nbc's ellison barber joining us from hialeah, florida. it's coming down to the wire for early voters here, but what is the reaction you're getting from the voters in terms of how much covid is on their minds? >> reporter: yeah, it's interesting, alex, no matter who we talked to, whether they're a republican, democrat, or an independent. every single person tells us their biggest issue this election cycle is covid-19. now, the reason as to why those differ depending on who you ask, look, we're outside of a polling location in hialeah, it is a neighborhood in miami. you can hear it. the mood here is really festive. take a look at this. over here you have a line of cars starting to form, but you have supporters across the street here for biden. they are playing music. they have free ice cream cones. just down the road here, this is florida for you. you have a house there with a bunch of president trump flags.

we've seen a number of cars drive by with those flags, as well. some biden, some president trump. the line for this polling place, it's long, but it's been moving pretty steadily all morning. all of these people here showing up to vote for the very last day of early voting in the state of florida. we have been walking up and down this line, talking to voters, asking them why they voted to cast their ballot today and also who they're voting more. here's some of what we heard. >> the reason why i waited is because i want to see more from both candidates, but i really decide what i'm going to do today. >> who did you decide to vote for? >> i'm going to vote for trump, for our president right now. >> my family is divided, so i don't want to hurt anybody's feeling, so i'm going to keep my vote, it's going to be personal, as it should be. >> the whole thing what's going on with i.c.e. is what bothers me the most, because i'm half-mexican, so that does hurt me in a way that is different.

>> it's such a crucial year to vote, to cast your vote for whoever it is that you admire, love, and want to lead this amazing country. so. this is about the seventh time i'm here today, i'm waiting for my brother who's coming to cast his vote. >> reporter: this is a cuban neighborhood. president trump has a lot of support among cuban americans. most of the people we've spoken to here today, they told us they plan to support president trump. obviously, across the street, i'll show you one more time, it's fun. we don't get music all the time, alex. there are people here coming out, vocally for former vice president joe biden. if president trump is going to win this state, he really needs to get support among people, cuban americans, venezuelan americans tend to lean right in order to cut into some of joe biden's margins in democratic stronghold counties like miami-dade. the question, of course, is can he do it? turnout here seems really high. >> there's no reason for you not

to get a little bit of music and enjoy your workday, as well. allison barber, thank you so much. we'll see you again. in his closing arguments, the president is making a final push for this voting bloc. >> they were talking about suburban women. suburban women don't like donald trump. i said, i think they do. i'm also getting your husbands, they want to get back to work, right? they want to get back to work. we're getting your husbands back to work. >> you said the other day to suburban women, will you please like me, please, please. >> oh, i didn't say that. you know, that's so misleading. >> you know, i didn't want to have this kind of angry -- >> of course, you did. >> suburban women, will you please like me? please. please. i saved your damned neighborhood, okay? >> oh, so, lesley stahl was right. with me now, katty kay, bbc news anchor and msnbc contributor. good to see you, katty. how do you interpret the president's tone right now and do you think he is connecting with women?

>> look, you just have to look at the polling from 2016 to 2018, right, to see what has happened to women voters in the country. in 2016, president trump did win white women voters, but actually, if you look at 2018, which in many ways might be the more accurate comparison, we've spoken a lot about 2016, where the polls were wrong, but if you look at 2018 where the polls predicted the numbers, where there was a huge amount of turnout and a huge turnout amongst suburban women, who in pennsylvania, for example, in the suburbs of philly, might have gone for president trump in 2016, in 2018, they left him to vote for democratic candidates. and i think that's -- that might give us the kind of most reliable data point that we've had in the last couple of years, of where women are and where they're shifting at the moment. but clearly the picture in nevada, he made a picture of housewives buying dish washers, because he was going to help

them do that. it's a curious pitch to women in the year 2020, to suggest that their husbands should go back to work and that they need dish washers. and if you look at 2018, it's not a picture that has been working particularly well. >> and do you think that the 2018 numbers, katty, are more accurate by your assessment because of pollsters making improvements on how they get those numbers? or because it's two years of the trump administration under their belt, when people went to the polls, instead of the novelty and the big promises of somebody who, listen, he couldn't be proven wrong at that point. >> it's so interesting talking to pollsters at the moment, isn't it, alex? the conversations i have had, pollsters have pushed back a little bit about, they all got it wrong in 2016 and if the polls aren't right in 2020, the whole industry deserves to be fired. they make the point that polls capture intention in a moment of time. they don't capture actual behavior. and in 2016, they captured the

intention of people to go out and vote, but they didn't actually turn out to vote. in 2018, they certainly were more accurate. they captured a huge amount of enthusiasm on the democratic side and that is actually what happened. i saw it in the lines in virgin in pouring rain, people in the suburbs of northern virginia standing an hour, two hours, three hours to go vote in a midterm election. it was sort of unprecedented, that amount of enthusiasm. so pollsters do say, yes, we have waited more for education seems to be the key that they think they have adapted more for th this time around. but if you hear democrats despite all their polls feeling nervous, i think it's for two reasons. of course they're nervous that what could happen in 2016 could happen again and donald trump matches to reach a whole lot of people that have not voted and not been caught up in the polls. white working class voters who turned out for them. and democrats saying, we are seeing the race tightening in

two days. you showed the florida poll right there with donald trump ahead two points. i think there is some nervousness on the democratic side on all fronts. >> let's take a look at the numbers at play with regard to the gender gap, specifically. we have "the wall street journal" nbc news poll news po trump's re-election support, 50% men, 35% women. biden support, 43% men, 58% women. what is your take on that, katty? >> whether it's because of black lives matter, and we've done interviews with women who have said in the suburbs that black lives matter with the killing of george floyd was a real eye opener for them, and the president tried to make law and order and being tough on law and order, a point which would win over suburban women. we heard that in the appeals, they're going to take over your

suburbs. a lot of women looked to the george floyd killing and had a sort of wake-up moment in this country that race and racial injustice is an issue that doesn't just affect black people, that white people need to take it on as well, and women in suburbs are saying that that is an important voting issue for them. >> okay. katty kay, nice to have your voice in the conversation. thanks so much. the president is said to make a campaign stop in north carolina a day after a violent confrontation and a get out the vote group. you can see officers using pepper spray there. they broke up a group of protesters and they say the march was peaceful but police say they were blocking the road. morgan radford joins us from charlotte today. morgan, how did all of this unfold, what we're seeing there on the video? >> reporter: yeah, it was a disturbing incident that unfolded on saturday, about 200 people there, alex, for a get

out the vote rally. it was expected to be a nonpartisan rally. they were there to encourage people to go to the polls. they had a moment of silence for george floyd and that's when the stories diverge. officers say they gave those protesters a warning, that they needed to disburse, and they also said they were blocking the roads and they did not have a permit to do so. the protesters say they were not given a warning, and that's when that pepper spray hit the ground. there were children there as young as five, eight people were arrested. since then the attorney general, as well as the governor, has spoken out about this event. the governor has called this unacceptable. but to keep things in perspective here, alex, this is all happening at a time that is absolutely critical for this state. the entire country is watching this state, alex, because of how close the polls are. not only when it comes to the presidential race, but also when it comes to that critical senate race. when it comes to the presidential race, president trump won this state by less than 200,000 votes in 2016. well, 2020 is looking, right

now, according to the polls, like a different story. we're seeing biden leading in the polls here in north carolina, and what's key is those suburban voters. he's leading by 22 points with those suburban voters. now, this time in 2016, trump was leading with those suburban voters by 24 points. so you can see just how much the state has changed. support for the president has shifted in the past four years, so biden is going after those voters who say they're not quite sure about president trump, who say they're disillusioned, who are critical of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. and then as i mentioned, alex, you have this critical senate race. this is something on track to be the most expensive u.s. senate race in history, passing the 2018 florida benchmark. already we've seen north of $233 million spent in advertising for this senate race here. you have a vulnerable incumbent republican who is being edged out of the polls by a democratic challenger. the state of the race is neck and neck here, and this is the

place to watch, alex. >> yeah, providing me all the reasons for why two of my four-person panel picked north carolina as their big state to watch on election night. we're watching you as well. thank you so much, morgan radford. we're about 53 hours away from the first polls closing on election day, and when they do, nbc will be keeping watch on a number of crucial battleground states that could determine who wins the white house. lindsay is joining me on a timeline to watch on election night. when do the polls close in it these critical states. >> the earliest is georgia at 8:00 p.m., the last one is 10:00. more than a million american voters have already voted. that's more than a third than 2016. let's take a look, for example, at georgia. they close at 7:00. they started processing ballots

about two weeks ago. if it is close, it may take a couple days. the secretary of state says they hope to have most of those races called by november 4th. let's look at ohio. polls close at 7:00 p.m. we should know the results of that by 8:00, but they can have mail-in ballots trickle in. we'll know how many outstanding absentee ballots to know if they'll make a difference. north carolina, polls close at 7:30. we should know a good chunk of those results because they started processing five weeks ago. if it's close, it could take some time. you're going to hear me say that a lot, alex. florida, polls close at 8:00. they started processing 24 days before. they're pretty good at this. they're used to mail-in voting, it should go pretty quickly. but again, if it's close, we may

not know election night. arizona where i'm from, polls closed at 9:00. they started processing two weeks ago. the earliest we're going to get those results is 10:00 p.m. eastern. the secretary of state is predicting 85% of the votes will be cast early, but there is going to be some last-minute absentee ballots trickling in and we may not know those results until thursday or friday. michigan, the polls also close at 9:00 p.m. the earliest ballots can be process ed in cities over 25,00 is tomorrow. that means it could take until friday for those ballots to get counted and show results. minnesota, they close at 9:00. they started processing two weeks from election day. they should know by wednesday. texas, polls close by 9:00. they processed early again. we should know by election night. they shouldn't have any delays, but by wednesday they'll be

processing those absentee ballots. iowa, that's one of the few places where the president is polling extremely well outside the margin of error. polls close at 10:00. they're the last one, as i mentioned. they started processing yesterday, so most will be counted, but ballots could trickle in through the night. let's go to some of these states that don't start processing until election day. pennsylvania, polls close at 8:00 at night. they start processing at 7:00 a.m. in the morning election day, so we won't have a majority of those counted until friday. wisconsin, polls close at 9:00, but they don't start counting until 8:00 a.m. when those polls open. we should know by tuesday or wednesday night. alex, a lot of question marks here. pennsylvania and michigan are the big ones, and if it's close, we'll be adding a lot more states to that as they finish. >> thank you so much, lindsay ris reiser, for that. coming up next, what biden

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