♪ hi there, everyone. i know that music. 4:00 in new york amid a blizzard of campaigning from both sides and a backdrop of closing messages that sound like they come from different planets, not just opposing political parties. the two agree on one thing. the race could come down to a few key battlegrounds and legal challenges are not out of the question, especially in critical states like pennsylvania. first, those wildly divergent

closing arguments. donald trump today amplifying and defending the vigilante harassment of a biden/harris campaign bus in texas. an incident now being investigated by donald trump's own fbi. tweeting his defense, the perpetrators of that dangerous attack and seeking to redirect the fbi to look at other groups, not his supporters. joe biden is closing with an indictment of donald trump's failure to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus and the damage to life and livelihoods that has ensued. >> tomorrow we can put an end to a president who has failed to protect this nation, and tomorrow we can put an end to a president who has fanned the flames of hate all across this country. millions of americans have already voted. almost 100 million have voted so far. 1 100 million voted already. and more are going to vote today. we are going to beat this virus and we are going to get it under

control, i promise you. look, the first step to beating the virus is beating donald trump. >> but while both candidates worked to rally enthusiasm from supporters in the waning hours of the race, both campaigns are in fact bracing for a photo finish in the contested battleground states and both campaigns preparing for that possibility of a legal fight ahead. from "the new york times" today, quote, joe biden holds a clear advantage over president trump across four of the most important presidential swing states. a new poll shows bolstered by the support of voters who did not participate in the 2016 election and who now appear to be turning out in large numbers to cast their ballots mainly for the democrats. and with even trump's own internal poll showing the path to 270 is exceedingly difficult and at the moment likely out of reach, donald trump is throwing the actual vote counting into

the political center ring with a suggestion that counting should be stopped after election night. also in "the new york times," quote, in reality, the scenario mr. trump is outlining every vote in a modern election being counted, tabulated and finished by midnight is not possible and never has been. no state ever reports final results on election night and no state is legally expected to. once again, donald trump is out there on the campaign trail today spinning a false narrative on the outcome of this election aided from the shadows by an attorney general who we know has kept him apprised of inquiries into potential ballot irregularities, especially in pennsylvania, no matter how baseless that turns out to be. the question is how far will trump go in challenging the vote and will the race be close enough for it to matter? state of the race is where we start. former congresswoman "washington post" contributing columnist and

north carolina native donna edwards is back. also with us former obama campaign manager david plet. "new york times" washington correspondent author of donald trump versus the united states michael schmidt is back and nbc news correspondent mike memoli live in pittsburgh and out on the campaign trail with joe biden is with us. mike, we start with you. what is the sort of tone and tenor of this campaign? you can usually pick up a whole lot from how a campaign feels on this someday. >> well, if you would have told me and a lot of other folks a year and a half ago that joe biden would be the candidate of message discipline in this race, a lot of people would have doubted that. but what do we see happening today on the final day? joe biden with very much the same message that he started his campaign with in april of last year when he had his first event at a union hall here in pittsburgh. he said then if he is going to defeat donald trump it's going to be because of places like

western pennsylvania. then he delivered a message very focused on the middle class working class voters he always considered his base. that was part of his argument to democratic voters at the time, historically crowded field. here he comes back to western pennsylvania now with that message, but also obviously one that has been adapted and evolved with circumstances, very squarely focused on the coronavirus. the president's handling of it. he got something of a gift with the president feeding into the calls of fauci by, at his first event today, very clearly saying he would hire fauci. the person we need to fire is president trump. and so was something that fueled him in the final days. but this is also a campaign that's had just -- and a stit, for that matter, that's had its strategy second-guessed throughout. they feel good. the thing that's not in their control, of course, is what happens with president trump and what he tries to do on election night as the results come in. that's why i think it's interesting what the campaign decided to do today.

the same kind of background briefings you have been a part of, campaigns that parties give to different news organizations on the eve of an election, the biden did it publicly. they put it on the social media platforms, laid out the path to victory. twha they made clear is that donald trump cannot claim he is going to be the victor tomorrow night. it's just for him to say he is the victor tomorrow night would be the same to declare that the covid crisis is over. they are clearly laying the groundwork. yes, they feel good about the results and what might come on election night, but they know that this could be a fight as much about lawyers as much as it is about voters. in fact, bob bauer, a top lawyer for the campaign, noted it's very interesting that the president, he said, is focused more on lawyers than voters at this point. that's where they are as we head into election day, nicolle. >> and this isn't a distinction in terms of the messaging, but both campaigns are prepared. bob bauer is leading this massive legal effort.

he showed a little bit of leg how vast it is with an interview with john heilemann. he said hundreds? he said more than that, he said thousands of volunteers. he said more than that. is their legal capacity if these legal fights take on more than one sort of county or more than one state? what is sort of the capacity to have a legal battle after election night? >> well, i mean, look, obviously all depends on how close the election is. and basically based on that we will see, if it's close, litigation in different states. these two lawyers from both sides going to court. there are more lawyers prepared for this election than any other election in certainly recent history and probably american history. from talking to different campaigns and folks working for them, they are anticipating a range of problems, things that you never could have thought of before because donald trump has

just no appreciation for the norms of the office. but he has this significant advantage, which is that he controls the federal government. the question is, is that what will the president do in terms of, you know, using the federal government? he does control the justice department. it's not clear how much the justice department can actually help him in court, but if he is looking to build a narrative it could be very helpful there. >> you know, david, behind all the talk on the stump from donald trump about sending in his lawyers is a tacit acknowledgment he can't get to 270 at the ballot box. do you hear that? >> it's quite a loser message, nicolle. >> totally. >> so, yeah. first of all, the event i saw this morning in north carolina, he looked defeated. he was talking about fox polls. he was talking about, you know, the domestic terrorist incident in texas. he was talking about firing dr. fauci. he wasn't talking about, like, jobs or health care or covid.

so that's right. i think we should be careful. we know trump is going to exhaust every option that he has. at the end of the day the votes are going to get counted. the winner is going to be declared the winner. the ruth is it's not just the states like pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin that are going to take a few days to count. we will know a lot in arizona, north carolina, iowa, florida pretty early in the night. so, yes, it's very desperate. and at the end of the day it may be that trump's base comes out no matter what, every person he needs. but it is not a great message for the people that you need to go stand in line tomorrow during a pandemic if you are basically saying i am probably going it lose, but i am going to try to steal it. it's like political malpractice. >> is that just trump saying what ashley parker coined the quiet part outloud, or what i said a tacit acknowledgment he knows he is going to lose?

the trump campaign will acknowledge it comes down to pennsylvania for them. they feel good about florida. they don't feel great about the other rust belt states, wisconsin and michigan. so they are looking at florida. here is the latest polling in florida. joe biden at 51, trump at 46. we also have some reporting that mike's done about some ballots and some maybe a trial run even for this kind of legal maneuvering that the justice department could involve itself in. what is your sense of how voters are reacting to this being in the news? thrust into the news by the incumbent president? >> well, i think already what we can see is that there is really record early vote turnout. now, some of that may be attributable to covid, to the pandemic, but we are also seeing a lot of voters who didn't vote in 2016 who are showing up. we are seeing new voters. we are seeing low propensity

voters turn you wiup to the pol. i think voters are, as my friend from wisconsin says, that they are acting in defiance and voting anyway. and so, you know, i just really don't see this as kind of a winning strategy. it's kind of a shame that mostly republicans have been in courts. you i think there are over 300 cases of litigation going on challenging every voter, every process, every procedure. this is not a winning strategy to convince people that you planned to win the election and that you are confident in doing that. on the other hand, you see joe biden saying, you know what? if we have to be ready, we are going to be ready, but we are also going to encourage people to show up at the polls. >> mike, i want to ask you if there was any reaction to this sort of stream of consciousness that has come out of trump's mouth on the stump lately. this is trump sort of riffing about how twitter is boring with joe biden ahead and about how his hunter biden attacks didn't

really land. let's watch. >> they took the "new york post" down for two weeks because they -- they won't let anyone write. if you put out a little tweet and say biden is corrupt, they will knock out your whole account. nobody's ever seen anything like this. and you notice it is outside of what i say, it is indeed fading away because you can't have a scandal if nobody writes about it. i see it on twitter trending, trending, right? it's not trending. they put the most boring anything. anything abobad about me, numbe one in the world trend. boring stuff, like stuff, i mean, as opposed to afathers, scandals, they don't even put that stuff up. it's always trump, two, three, four, five items. it's a fix. >> the guy has a future as a teen influencer. mike, what is the biden campaign here whether he is basically acknowledging that all of his

faux scandals, all of the sort of toxic stuff he hoped to sort of jolt the race in its final days with is a flop? >> yeah, joe biden himself has something he likes to say when this kind of stuff comes up, which is the second time the karney show comes to town and you realize there is nothing under the shells, people get on to -- catch wise to this act here. that's exactly the posture of the biden campaign as we hear sort of an attempt to replay what worked for him perhaps in 2016, in 2020. i have been thinking as we headed to the finish line of this campaign of something joe biden told me in january just before the iowa caucuses. they didn't go his way, but his argument then was that any attempt -- of course we were in the midst of the impeachment at the time, by the trump campaign to ride this hundredor issue to victory, he said the public knows me, warts and all. they know my weaknesses and strengths.

there has been this supreme confidence on the part of the biden campaign from rt beginning that whatever the president would try to throw at them wouldn't work because biden is such a known quantity to voters. one of the most remarkable things as we talk to our own pollsters and you see this had in all the public data is joe biden's favorability numbers have actually increased over the course of the last few months. that's incredible especially with all the money being thrown at him. it's really a testament to the strategy they laid out from the beginning and their confidence and not straying from it. >> that is an interesting dynamic, that when 100% of the electorate knows you and there is a positive impression of you, the negative attacks tend to boomerang on the person making them. joe biden has a five-point lead in pennsylvania. mike, i want to ask you about something axios is reporting because it pertains to this margin in pennsylvania. they write this.

president trump has told confidants he will declare victory if it looks like he is ahead. he has subsequently denied this reporting. but axios stands by it. they continue. that's even if the electoral college counts on votes in key states like pennsylvania. i know it's an open question how far he will go in using his own justice department, but is there any indication that the gop around which he had stranglehold won't stand with him if this tends to look not just fishy, but fruitless? >> well, i guess that's a real question. that's a question we have been asking each other from day one of the trump presidency. in the media and, you know, amongst folks on capitol hill, which is how long are the republicans going to stay along with the president? and i think that many in the country have been surprised by what they've -- they have gone

along for. and how bedrock and strong that support has remained. remember, in the impeachment there was one senator who voted to convict -- republican senator on one count. and that is just, you know, it just shows how strong of a relationship the president has had with his base. and this essentially will be the ultimate test of that. if the president is behind tomorrow night and it looks like he, you know, he may lose, what will republicans do and what will they go along with? and the person at the center of all of that is bill barr. bill barr, the head of the justice department, will have, you know, a giant sort of role here to play in signaling whether republicans are going to go along with the president or not. >> you know, david, i think that mike's putting it diplomatically. i think part of the reason the senate races have been so nationalized, you have democrats giving to races many, many time

zones away is because there is as much enthusiasm on the democratic side to change the control of the senate from mitch mcconnell to democratic control. and the opposite could also be true. i mean, trump's conduct and trump talking about suing his way to the presidency and trump spending these final days saying my efforts at dirty politics were a flop, i can't get hunter biden to trend. he may be putting the final nail in the coffin on some of these close senate races, too. >> yeah, well, he barely can, you know, have the courtesy to call these senate republicans candidates up with him. when he travels to the states, it's like they don't exist. martha mcsally and joanie ernest. you haven't seen a single republican in a competitive contest maligning mail-in ballots. why? they need people to vote for them. you have now -- listen, i would like the entire republican party to come out and criticize what trump said about what he may do in pennsylvania. that's too much to ask.

but no one followed him there. at the end of the day, florida's scenario where trump declares victory, if biden has been declared the winner in florida, georgia, arizona, or north carolina he will look doubly foolish. if he says i am ahead in pennsylvania, i have won and by friday he lost pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin he will look like a fool. he is already going to be a disgraced american political figure who has severe financial, legal, and reputational problems staring him in the face once he leaves office. and to add to this like basically say i'm going to pull the autocratic move here prematurely, he may still do it, but i am not sure people are going to follow him down that twisted path. i am really not. again, you're right. he is closing here. maybe very wouldn't be surprised but in a bizarre way. i think that will hurt republicans because momentum is the most powerful porforce in politics. if you don't have it, you want to seem like you have it.

>> yeah. >> that's right. he can't fake it. >> right. that is the most remarkable thing about it for a show man, he is having a really hard time faking that he still has a -- or that he thinks he that still has a path. i want to close this piece. talking about whether republicans will stand with him if this thing becomes lawyered up, if it seems like an illegitimate effort op trump's part. sometimes the former republicans are a canary in the mine. my party is destroying itself. quote, this attempted disenfranchise. of voters cannot be justified by the unproven republican dogma about widespread fraud. challenging voters at the polls or distributing the legitimacy of mail-in ballots isn't about fraud. rather than producing conservative policies, republicans are trying to exclude their votes.

it's really simple, but that's exactly what's going on, donna. >> yeah, and i also think, i mean, for the future, this is simply not going to be a winning strategy for rebuilding their party post-trump. and those mail-in ballots, i mean, they are not all democratic ballots. so in some of these close races where you have close senate races, some of those ballots could be tied up there and the president is working and his team is working to have them all invalidated. and so, look, this is not a strategy for the future. if the republican party wants to have a future, at some point or other, and we are coming up in the waning hours, someone is going to have to distance themselves from this president of the united states. he is clearly not going to be around forever. >> so perfectly put. you took my breath away there,

donna. thank you so much for starting us off. when we come back, donald trump defending his supporters from a potential crime. the crime of trying to box in a biden campaign bus on a road in texas over the weekend. the intimidation and harassment of the trump voter just ahead. plus, joe biden has maintained a double-digit lead nationally for some time now. how does that translate to an electoral college victory? steve kornacki will walk us through it. and one of the most popular people in the democratic party today is campaigning in the red state of georgia one day before the election. former president barack obama's visit to the state showing how very real flimg it back to the democratic column could be. all those stories coming up. don't go anywhere. don't go anywhere. indistinct talking on tv ] hey.

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team trump and the president himself intensify voter intimidation efforts and praising potential criminal conduct by his supporters over the weekend. the fbi announced it is investigating this moment. it happened on friday in central texas. a biden/harris campaign bus was swarmed on the highway and seemingly almost run off the road by a caravan of trump supporters. trump lashed out against the fbi in response on twitter yesterday saying this. quote, in my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. instead, the fbi and justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of antifa who run around bunch down our democrat-run cities and hurting our people. trump also praised his supporters in a tweet of the video and during his mischigan

rally yesterday. >> did you see the way our people, they, you know, they were protecting his bus yesterday because they're nice. so they had hundreds of cars. trump, trump. trump and the american flag. that's it. you see trump and the american flag. >> joining us now -- that's not what they were doing. msnbc correspondent garrett haake live in houston, texas for us. donna and david sitill here. david, this goes back to the political incompetence, political malpractice. if you take donald trump by his word that the voters from his 2016 coalition who have led in the largest numbers of suburban women to whom he cries out, you know, like rocky, i mean, he literally bellows for them to come back to him, the way to get them back is not through road rage, and then celebrating said road rage. what is he doing? >> who knows. i mean, listen, i think he

enjoys seeing those visuals. it may be the only thing that lifts his spirits as he is looking down the barrel of an embarrassing historic defeat. but, yeah, from an electoral standpoint, this is what people are tired of. they want washington to settle down. they want a president is who is not invading our lives, who doesn't incite violence. he was the guy in the first debate who told the white supremacists to stand by. he is encouraging violence. we will see what happens tomorrow. again i think a lot of this is paper tiger stuff. but at the end of the day he is out there saying run buses off the road, show up at polling locations with aq 47s, only count trump votes. as part of a close here, when people care about the economy, jobs, health care, the pandemic and they want, you know, basically our country to not be so divided, all he is offering in the close is he is not going to change his spots. so, yeah, quite puzzling from a

political standpoint but reprehensible. we have a president of the united states like openly cheering for violence on our streets. >> well, and this is deadly serious, donna edwards. the biden/harris campaign proceeded to cancel a couple of events. i think in that state and a couple others. if you were driving on that highway and i don't care who you are, a trump supporter or isn't part of the crowd of trucks trying to run a bus off the road or a biden supporter or you don't care for either one, your family's life could have been in danger. this has gone too far. and i guess i wonder where all of the voices are to condemn taking political partisanship and political speech to 70 miles an hour on the highways. >> i don't know where they voices are. they haven't sheen up for the last 3 1/2 years. highly unlikely they will show up the day before the election. and there was a car collision

that resulted. and so someone could have been seriously hurt. you know, i was behind one of those caravans actually yesterday in the metropolitan washington area on the washington beltway, and it really disrupted traffic and it caused people to brake unnecessarily. it's dangerous. and i don't even know what is to be gained by that because you got figure there are at least a couple of trump voters on the road who don't want to be blocked off. you know, all it does is make people mad when you are trying to block off traffic on a major highway. >> this broader topic, garrett haake, i asked a trump advisor yesterday if he thought that trump would be a voice asking his supporters not to resort to violence should he lose and he said no. he would not. where do you think the law enforcement community stands on this? where do you think the fbi is today after being on the receiving end of that, couldn't

view that as anything other than an attempt to interfere in an ongoing investigation. donald trump saying don't investigate my supporters and lying at the rally saying they were protecting the bus by almost running it off the road. >> yeah, political trolling is one thing, but doing so at 70 miles an hour on a highway where really a 70-mile-per-hour speed limit is pretty much just a suggestion down here in texas, is incredibly reckless. the law enforcement perspective is interesting on this. the fbi field office in san antonio come out and confirmed on the record that they were investigating this. you know, the fbi doesn't generally speaking like to come out and tell you what they are investigating or what they're not. so i think that speaks to a degree of seriously which they are treating this. law enforcement doesn't want to be in the middle of this. this not what they want to be doing on election day, any other day, refereeing between overanimated political supporters of one party or another. the other interesting political play to this is democrats, they did cancel those additional

kamala harris events out of an abundance of caution. they also don't want to overplay this either. texas has potentially, they are on track to have more than 12 million people cast votes in this election. it would be an incredible breakthrough in terms of turnout in the state. texas democrats want people to understand coming out to vote is going to be safe, they are not going to be harassed, don't worry about the fact that they have people out in jacked up trucks who might be causing trouble. so the political ramifications of this are bizarre. i don't think this moves a vote one way or another, but everybody would like to see this toned down here in texas where there is a honest to god electoral interest and turnout story happening, not this sideshow. >> garrett, what is the electoral story there? what is going on? i have talked to -- obviously, i worked for a former texas governor who became a republican president. this was his home. this was friendly territory for republicans. that has been a changing story. you have been on the trail with

beto o'rourke and you have gone back and covered some of the big national stories that have touched texas disproportionately, the pandemic, the massacre in el paso. what is happening in texas? >> i mean, i think there are a couple of things happening at once. for the longest time texas was written off as a battleground state. i think beto o'rourke, despite not winning two years ago, showed people in a state that had been gerrymandered and left behind, democrats in particular, hey, your vote might actually make a difference here. this cycle you have a ton of competitive races. there are half a dozen at least really competitive house races here, the texas statehouse is really competitive for the first time. the biden campaign has been on the ground filling in the gaps. this has been a grassroots awakening of sorts among democrats in texas who can smell the possibility that maybe this blue texas that people have been hearing about, in some cases for their entire politically active lives, might actually be possible. you combine that with certain

elements of the pandemic. texas has had this one step forward, two steps back this year. the republican governor added days to the early voting calendar, then took away vote dropoff locations in harris county and other big counties. sort of got people really defensive about their voting rights, about the opportunity to come out and be a part of this. and you saw that in the early vote and i think, as the early vote period went on in texas, it gained more and more steam. you get through the magic number of 12 million votes in texas, and this is anybody's ball game. the models don't count that high. so anybody who tells you they know what is going to happen is not telling you the truth. we are in borderline unchartered territory about what texas could look like on election night. >> i get more notes from my former republican colleagues from my time in republican politics about texas changing and watching texas than just about any other state. and you're there for it. i am so jealous. thank you, garrett haake, for that reporting.

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and be healthy. get off the floor and get on the aerotrainer. go to aerotrainer.com, that's a-e-r-o-trainer.com. ♪ both donald trump and joe biden today making their final pitches to voters. trump holding rallies in north carolina, pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin while joe biden stumps in the swing states of ohio and pennsylvania.

the final nbc news/wall street journal poll shows biden with a ten-point lead over trump nationally. how does that advantage translate it those battleground states biden needs to win? let's bring in nbc news and msnbc national political correspondent steve kornacki at the big board. i have one question for you and then i am going to let david and donna jump in. my question is, this quote from bill mackin turf, the republican pollster that helps with our polls with the nbc "wall street journal" poll who said this is the clo he is exist ten-point race i have ever seen. what does that mean? >> look at the map here. you can see the national poll right now. let's go to the battleground here. you see the battleground states here all have something in common. they are states that trump won in 2016. so they are states he won where he is playing defense right now. if you were just to look at the polling averages in these states, arizona is razor thin. our nbc marist poll showed a tie

in arizona 48-48. texas is close, you are talking within a couple of points. iowa there was one poll over the weekend that actually showed trump ahead right there. otherwise, been very close. florida always close. georgia, north carolina, ohio, maybe more of a biden advantage in these three, wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. the point is you got a ten-point poll nationally and kbryet in j about all of the battlegrounds you are within two, three points. so it raises all sorts of -- it raises an extremely wide range of possibilities when you're looking to the battle for 270. it's something from a biden landslide where just everything just breaks his way. maybe he wins in texas by a point. maybe he is winning in ohio by two. narrow biden win or you go the other way. just a couple of points. not a huge hang and suddenly a lot of these states start flipping red. >> david plouffe. >> so, steve, when you look at

arizona, texas, florida, north carolina and georgia, you know, estimates are anywhere from 79 to 92% of the votes in. it's a small poll on election day. do we have new data on who is left and how they are breaking? >> that's the question. i mean, the question really is -- and i think it's going to be anderson on election night, who shows up on election day. when you look at texas and some of the counties where they have had the highest early vote turnout in texas you are looking at a lot of places that are metro areas, where democrats made big gains in 2018. the question a lot of these republican areas whether it's texas or other states is there is going to be a surge, is there going to be a flood of republican turnout, pro-trump turnout? florida is a good example i think. in 2016 we got to election day in florida, there were 90,000 more ballots that had been cast in the early vote process by

democrats than by republicans. it looks like hillary clinton had won those early vote ballots. she won them basically by about six points. then on election day there was a flood of trump voters that people didn't anticipate, especially along the gulf coast, and donald trump won the election day vote in florida by 12 points in 2016. what that added up to was basically a trump victory of one point statewide. we saw that variance in 2016. i don't think even on election morning 2016 people expected the extent of the surge there in trump support, again the gulf coast stuck out back then. that's the thing. we can have all the early data voting in the world, get up to 100 million votes cast. there is that question is it going to be five million more? is there going to be a million? is it going to be lower? that will be answered election day. >> steve, i have a question about that. it would appear that the polls were as bad for donald trump

when voting started as they are now in some of the states they were worse. does that tell you anything about the vote that is banked, or does it still depend on who shows up tomorrow? >> my reservation on this is when you take polls, and we have been seeing this since the summer. i saw polls in ohio, pennsylvania, florida this summer when they asked the question basically, is there anything that could possibly make you change your mind in this presidential race? and it was 92, 93, 94% were saying no, my mind is made up. >> i remember that. >> so we have always, and i think this might be true from november 2016 on, we've always been talking about such a small universe of undecided voters. if you tell me 100 million out of a universe of maybe 150 million vote tall voters, 100 million turn out early, are they the 100 million who had their minds made up for four years, or have they banked either side, have they banked voters who were

wishy-washy and they cast their ballot the middle of october? i am not so sure on that. >> donna. >> steve, i know you have been tracking the gender gap. i wonder if you could tell us a little bit about specifically what is happening with white women and is that narrowing a little bit in some of these key states? >> yeah, where democrats hope it's narrowing. again we talk about the metro areas, texas is a great example of this around atlanta is a great example, this north carolina is a great example of this, philadelphia suburbs. metropolitan areas, college educated voters, white collar professionals. that's where democrats have seen the greatest growth with suburban women. texas, you know, you talk about, look, 2012 mitt romney won texas by 16 points. in 2016, donald trump won it by nine. in 2018, ted cruz, republican senator, won it by only three points. that was in six years time

republicans went from a 16-point pad in texas down to just three. down to just barely hanging on. democrats think they may have made more progress between '18 and '20. where is it? the dallas/fort worth metroplex, the houston metro area, austin, san antonio, it's suburbs, and a lot has to do with suburban women. >> steve kornacki, i know a little bit about how much demand your time is in. i am grateful for you spending time with us. we have all night tomorrow to fix this out. >> happy to do it. >> when we come back, we hathey got georgia on their mind today. democrats sending former president obama out to a state that hasn't been competitive for the democratic ticket in about 30 years. president obama making the case for joe biden and two democratic senate candidates. that story next. story next.

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i got a call and said, look, georgia, georgia could be the state. georgia could be the place where we put this country back on track and not just because joe biden and kamala harris have a chance to win georgia, but you've got the chance to flip two senate seats. i said. >> well, i got to go. i got to come. i told michelle, i'm sorry, baby. i got to go to georgia.

>> that was former president barack obama at a get out the vote event in georgia, a state that democrats haven't won in a presidential contest since 1992. the biden camp single best campaigner going to georgia on the day before election day, a sign that team biden thinks they have a real shot at winning there. "politico" reports enormous growth. demographic change and anti-trump backlash in the atlanta suburbs is driving the new found competitiveness. both parties are closely watching black turnout, intensity and the volume of new voters who didn't show up in 2016 as well as biden's potential traction with white suburbanites. donna and david are here. david plouffe, what is going on in georgia? >> offense, offense, offense. so, the fact that barack obama's in georgia on election eve. let's go through a scenario that

i don't think is likely. let's say biden wins michigan and wisconsin. i think he is going to win pennsylvania, too. let's say trump wins that. if you flip georgia, game, set, match. and i think for a long time we thought, you know, arizona was going to have to play that role and it's still it still may. so the 16 lectoral votes but and just as we were talking with steve, you have 10 to 20% of the votes coming in and you want to maximize turnout on election day. so it is important for this election, of course, after this week we could talk about what this means for american politics going forward. but if you're living in a country where arizona, texas an georgia are competitive, that really disrupts american presidential elections and you could argue senate relations. this is where you want to be at end and defending their own end zone which is what trump is having to do on his travel schedule today. >> donna, i will respect the

request that we have this conversation after tuesday night. but i think the fact that we're talking about texas and georgia and north carolina and arizona on the monday before the election said that the country has already changed dramatically since four years ago. talk about the senate race. because it seems that georgia's a place in some of the close senate races it seems that the intensity around the presidential is lifting some of the democratic senate candidates. this seems like each is fuelling the other. there is intensity around the two senate seats and around the presidential being competitive. what do you think is going on in georgia? >> well, i think a couple of things. one, we have to acknowledge what stacey abrams did to open up the playing field in georgia. an to not let that go for two years. too often we get into the competitive races as democrats and then you lose an election and everything goes to waste and

you have rebuild again. that is not what happened in georgia. it is providing exactly the kind of groundwork that you need for these two senate races. and look, georgia has a system where one or the other race might go into a runoff. but one of them may get to 50%. so i think we're seeing a new south and you could see it by the demographic shift, by the wins at those local races and in competitive congressional districts. so, yes, something is really happening. and this is where democracy is beginning to catch up with the republican party. >> let me read this reporting to you, david plouffe, from "the washington post." they had to come out of the closet. women and seniors in georgia rally behind biden. suburban women and moms and seniors, are the new democrats of cobb county went democrat.

they found their political voices and where motivated to participate in politics some haven't done since college or ever. and we could wait until wednesday to have this conversation, too. but it seems like donald trump's fail ty of the coalition, is something we ignored at our own peril. he never put that coalition together again. normal presidents try to put their winning coalition behind legislative pushes. we recreated it to try to get tax cuts through and education reform through and social security and immigration reform through and you reassembled around the health care issue. trump never test run a campaign around which putting together his coalition could be done. and so it seems that some of

this dropoff of what probably was the difference for him in '16, could have been predicted and maybe repaired if they have seen the deficits earlier. do you think that is part of what is going on? >> well i do, nicolle. i feel like i used the term political mal practice with you but this is another case. >> because you're like, and i dent want them to fix it. but this might be one of the look backs where they could have if they tried. >> well, right. if you basically in a black swan event win a presidential election with 46.1% of the vote, you think you would show interest right away in growing that. he's shown no interest nor ability to growing base and we see cracks in the infamous voters are going back to biden. in 2008 i think barack obama accelerated virginia and colorado becoming blue states. and back then people thought we were nuts to contest them and

treat them as core battlegrounds. i think trump has accelerated. to donna's point, by the end of the decade, i think it could be competitive. and donna mentioned stacey abrams. they have a remarkable 2018. we won back the house and we won state houses and lost some key statewide races. andrew gillum and stacey abrams and beto o'rourke. beto ran for president. what did they do? they went home and organized and didn't let the momentum dissipate. and one of the reasons that those races are all competitive if any of them turn blue on tuesday night, it is heroic and what their supporters did and that is what you have to do in states like that, because in noncollection years, you have to register, you have to persuade

and organize and those took a day to dust themselves off and got right back in the arena. >> let me just say just to put on this up, this is the black hole that republicans have fallen into. they've done none of that. republicans have wandered around shell shocked. they've tried everything, right. so they decided to jump on donald trump's coat tails and just ride the magic carpet ride for four years. and whatever happens on tuesday, none of which you just articulated happens on the republican side any more. and a lot of the activists -- the operatives that work with the activists in the states are now working for joe biden's election. so you talk about party that would start over if they are delivered a blow on tuesday. that would be the republicans. donna edwards, david fluff, i'm so grateful the two of you carved out an hour. thank you so much.

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people of this nation have suffered. they've sacrificed for nine months, more than those doctor and nurses and health care workers and this president is questioning their character, their integrity, their commitment to the fellow americans. as i said, it is a disgrace. and last night trump said he was going to fire dr. fauci. isn't that wonderful. i have a better idea. elect me, i'm going to hire dr.

fauci. i'm going to fire donald trump. >> well hi, again, everybody, it is 5:00 in the new york. the very first poll closings are a little more than 24 hours away. and caught in the races' political cross fire is dr. fauci. as joe biden brought up there, donald trump has determined that the exclamation point on the end of his mad cap campaign for re-election is to lead his supporters in fire fauci cheers. it is almost literally a scene out of the new satire movie borat, where trump and his supporters turn the top disease and pandemic expert into some kind of a imaginary political foe. take a listen. [ crowd chanting ] >> fire fauci. fire fauci. five fauci. >> don't tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after

the election. i appreciate the advice. i appreciate it. now, he's been wrong a lot. he's a nice man. he's been wrong a lot. >> fauci who has seemed dismayed or dressed about thrown into the middle of this has thrown his hands in the air and delivered the straight talk to trump about where trump has directed this country in terms of the failed response to the coronavirus pandemic. fauci telling "the washington post," quote, we're in a whole lot of hurt. it is not a good situation. all of the stars are aligned in the wrong place in the season with people congregating at home indoors. you could not possibly be positioned more poorly. dr. fauci, who has served six presidents from both political parties and who was awarded the presidential medal of freedom by george w. bush asked about the two candidates, asked about the

difference, fauci said biden is taking it seriously from a public health perspective, trump he said is looking at it from a different perspective. he said that perspective was the economy and reopening the country. at one point in the interview fauci warned he needed to be careful with his words because woe be blocked from doing appearances in the future. donald trump's hostility toward anthony fauci is no secret but it is mind-boggling as to why the president thinks threatening to fire him, which he technically can't do, is a way to expand his coalition considering dr. fauci has much higher favorable ratings than trump. two-thirds of the voters said dr. fauci has been excellent or good as opposed to trump's handling which only 39% would consider good or excellent. and without conceding that trump can't pull a rabbit out of his hat on election day, his own advisers acknowledge that donald trump failed the leadership test

that the pandemic presented him with. quote, he couldn't get past the pandemic as something happened to him and he could turn trust that doing the right thing for the country would benefit him politically. one close adviser to the president told me last night. the president, the plague and the high wire act of trump's war on dr. fauci where we start this hour. nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett is at the site of trump's rally this afternoon and our friend alexi mccannon from axios and our friend tim miller, from republican voters against trump and former communication director for jeb bush 2016 campaign, also a contributor to the bulwark and cornell belcher is here and msnbc political analyst. let me start with you, geoff, because you're on the campaign

trail. trump doesn't have a lot of strategy, other than the crowd is there some grand plan that campaigning against tony fauci. >> for the president to pick a fight with dr. fauci, it is a curious fight given that president trump is facing the worst polling position for an incumbent since george h.w. bush in 1992 and that dr. fauci, according to our latest poll, has the highest positive rating of something like 50%. the reason why, apparently, with dr. fauci, a one sided fight, is because dr. fauci has a much lower approval rating among trump supporters. and it's not helpful for this president when the coronavirus has emerged as a central theme

and issue in this election for dr. fauci to come out and give his science-based analysis, his opinions to "the washington post" where he said joe biden is handled this pandemic more serio seriously and the president is focused on the economy and reopening the country. and we've seen false information bts pandemic, saying we're rounding the curve, that is we know is not true as hospitalizations surnl. and then today he said a vaccine will be available within weeks when the leader of his own warp speed said it will be by the middle of this spring. spring 2021 at least before a vaccine is widely available. so the president is doing what he can to dismiss the pandemic as being an -- an issue that voters should care about. when clearly here in michigan, for instance, this is a state hard hit and this is a state

where voters say they care deeply about that issue. >> cornell, my sense in the polling is that joe biden cemented his lead when he made his coronavirus sort of case and argument about reopening as a goal and beating the virus as the means to achieving that goal. and then that he sort of synched up those two things, that it is not -- even sort of the trump's best case version, that he's for reopening and joe biden is for dealing with the pandemic, joe biden is for reopening by dealing with the pandemic. and it seems that is an important turn for biden to make and that is when this sort of eight to ten point lead seemed to really lock in for him. >> yeah. i think what trump -- i'm puzzled to try to make sense of the trump campaign. but here we go. i think -- i think there is some

cross pressure and data between people of economic angst around covid and their health care angst around covid. i think what trump in a clumsy way is trying to do is play on that cross pressure to give voters pause. i think the larger problem for him is this, i think this election is going to be decided largely around four variables. one being the pandemic. one being racial tension. one being health care and one being just outright moral corruption. but none of them frankly are as front and center for so many of those suburban women that trump desperately is trying to move back into his column than the pandemic. and his handling of it has been terrible. if you look at the polls, biden has a 20 to 22, 23 point advantage dealing with the pandemic over donald trump. so he's trying to sort of change the subject and change the

narrative around it. and i was watching, it is interesting because i was watching football like most red blooded americans on sunday. >> we're not offended. >> i kept seeing commercials where donald trump is talking about how he's take on covid and the country is turning the corner. it is as if he's trying to get us to believe that we are turning the corner on covid. but, again, those suburban moms that he needs so desperately who are dealing with home schooling their kids and economic uncertainty, i don't think a message that we're turning the corner and i'm going to fire the one guy that you trust to deal with this pandemic is going to help him expand his electorate. it is about doubling down on his base. an it is most bizarre campaign i've seen in my life. >> tim, i want to you ask about that sort of dime of trump's handling that i heard from one

of his advisers last night. because they're not conceding this race by any means. but if trump comes up short, the sense, at least among the folks i've talked to, is that he failed not necessarily in the result, even though i think most rational people think the result is unacceptable in a developed world. but he failed to understand that what the public needed to hear was that he was on top of some aspect of it. that he was either going to distribute tests, that he was going to oversee and hold accountable contact tracing and make sure that every state had adequate supplies and it was sort of trumpian, i think people thought, to want to be the guy. he's such a tactile go pushing out ventilators and q tips and talking about the sticks going up his nose and saying everybody in america will have one in their drawer. that he just couldn't be made to

give a bleep about any of it, seems like the political crime in what is criminal in many other as pecks, public health and economic health and all of the rest. >> here is the thing, nicolle. we do focus groups with republican supporters against trump and they're gettable for him. and all he had to do was pretend to care. >> yeah. that is what i was trying to say, yes. >> you don't have to do a good job or care, you just had to pretend to care and pretend to do a good job and he couldn't even do that. and had he taken this thing seriously, and had he been the populous trump to push congress to get a deal done and get checks in mailboxes, he would be in a darn good position to win re-election. leaders across the globe, he's the only one whose numbers are going down during the pandemic. people want to believe that their leaders are doing a good job and there are plenty of

people who didn't. andrew cuomo didn't do that great of a job but his numbers are up because he showed that he cared and he was trying. and more than that, he's a complete slave to the -- to his base in a way that is just unhealthy to the bis and the people around them and a quick shoutsout to jeff for being out there on this covid cool aid toor because i think it is insane. >> i was look aing at the shotso see if i could see masks. there is none, right? >> it is horrifying. trump wants to appeal to the crowd, he's attacking fauci and ga ga and lebron james and not trying to care about this recent surge in the coronavirus and that is lasting message he'll leave on this voters that he could have gotten.

people that voted for him last time because they thought he was going to be a deal maker that got things done and he wasn't even able to fake it. >> alexi you have great reporting on the pandemic and the president and i wonder if you heard this argument from his folks, i mean, trump could never get over feeling like the pandemic happened to him. and it hurt him. and it hurt his great economy that he built. none of those things were true. but because he was so convinced of it, he could never -- and i think president obama really sort of kicked him in the political teeth with this when he said donald trump is jealous of all of the press coverage covid gets. i mean, that is a fair hit. because way donald trump is acted so jealous of covid, trying to sort of hog the briefings where he didn't know jack squat about pandemics and frank frankly neither do, but i didn't hold court for two hours a day and tell the public to inject

bleach into their lungs. >> other reporters and politicos and people are thinking about how to change the republican party through legislation, like tax cuts and other things that he promised or if he would change it by way of settling personal scores and i can't help but think on the eve of the election that this is exactly what we're seeing from the president throughout his presidency, the way that he is ending and sending this closing message about setting personal scores with dr. fauci, we have reporting at axios last week that said if president trump gets elected, he's going to move to fire the fbi director, the cia director, the defense secretary and that is all in addition to the way that he's talking about dr. fauci. it is really just been a campaign and a presidency of settling personal scores, airing these personal grievances and really putting himself front and center making this election even more of a referendum on himself

and the presidency. that is also evident in the way that anyone by joe biden has been his political foe in the last few weeks alone especially. you know, he's talking about dr. fauci. dr. fauci is not on the ballot. joe biden is. but nicolle, what is so fascinating is the way that he's talking about firing dr. fauci today, before the election, last night, i guess, two days before, is the first time he's acknowledged that covid is on the ballot. and that is everything we're talking about for so long and it is almost as if he's admitting that or acknowledging that in a weird way without coming out and saying it. because he's viewing dr. fauci as his main political opponent. and i think that tells us everything we need to know about how he's feeling about covid being front and center tomorrow. >> geoff, jump in on that. i remember watching last rallies and looking in the eye and speaking to the forgotten men and women about trade, about nafta, about the wars in iraq and afghanistan and then of course he was hammering hillary clinton over the reopening of

the email investigation. he is, as alexi said, riving on dr. fauci, attacking celebrities, complaining about covid. is there any sense that there is any effort behind driving any biden focus, joe biden, not hunter biden focus messaging? >> reporter: well, look, it is clear that the final hours of this campaign for president trump are driven by grievance. and all one has to do is just attend or watch these rallies and look at the things he chooses to focus on. and you could learn a lot about the ways in which a campaign views their own standing by looking at where they choose to spend their time the day before an election. joe biden is on offense, blanketing pennsylvania, going to cleveland, two biden staffers believe that ohio could be within reach. president trump is trying to defend turf from joe biden and in pennsylvania, in north carolina, making two stops, two stops here in michigan today.

and so to answer your question, if there is a strategy, the strategy is this -- the campaign takes comfort not on the polling but the fact that there thousands of people at the stops that spend a work day, seven to eight hours waiting here in the cold just to see president trump speak for about half an hour, 35 minutes. there is no correlation between people who will show up at a rally and people who will show up to vote. but the campaign is hoping that the thousands people, the sizes of these crowds will have some sort of direct correlation to the actual turnout on election day. there have been some campaign projections they have a two to one margin where they expect they'll be able to eat away whatever margin democrats have in early voting. >> well, tim, that is teed up perfectly for you. because these rallies may be that but they may also be making sick everyone who goes to them. i want to read from the "san francisco chronicle." they blame rallies for an

estimated 700 coronavirus deaths. as president trump holds a string of rallies across the country and in the final days of the presidential campaign, stanford researchers released a study that found in a earlier presidential campaign gatherings accounted for 30,000 additional cases of the coronavirus and may have led to 700 deaths. the study from the stanford institute for economic policy looks at the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the weeks after the trump held 18 large rallies. so you've been saying it. finally the researchers proved it out, tim. >> yeah, look, there shouldn't be thousands of people at a rally. trump's own cdc said we shouldn't have gatherings that big. and that sad thing is, it is for the people that go to rallies and getting sick and dying but it is other people in the community who didn't have this choice. it is a contagious disease. they go visit grandma at the nursing home, they go to the grocery store after these rallies and they're carrying this virus with them. it is unconscionable. and when i look at these pictures and i when i see marco

rubio last night screaming at a -- spittle at rally like this. in four years when there is a half million dead, 400,000, we don't know yet, americans dead from the virus and one of the other folks want to carry the mantle of the republican party, it will look horrible and we'll look back at these images and be shocked that these event were being held at all. >> and cornell, i should say that we are required to point out that the studies from an economist, not an expert in epidemiology or covid. but to pick up on tim's political point, at a time when you're all suffering from some sort of hardship, tragically a lot people are sick, just as tragically people have lost their jobs but universally people are not gathering with family and loved ones and friends. donald trump is. and i wonder if we'll look back and see these rallies as something that sort of hardened

the fault lines between him and his base and any opportunity at rebuilding the coalition from 2016. >> yeah, two things here. one, with the choice that donald trump is making between him and dr. fauci, nicolle, i'm going out on a limb here and make a big prediction here. >> i'm ready. >> i think dr. fauci is going to win over electoral college landslide on election night. think it is going to be reagan '84 over donald trump. but, look, think the first job of the president is to protect american people, right. and whether you're democrat or republican, the presidents take that very serious. in the number one job of protecting the american people, i think this president has done a terrible job. and you see the way voters are turning against him, even voters who once upon a time supported him are turning on him.

it is an indictment of this. look, i think to tim's point, oftentimes politicians doan have to solve problems. lord knows, nicolle, you worked in the white house, you know sometimes they don't solve problems but they do have to care. they have to pretend that they care. bill clinton was best at this feeling their pain. when you look at those crowds, when you look at the way they're treating this pandemic, you don't get the sense that they give a damn about regular america americans and i think that is the most long lasting about this era and this presidency. >> geoff bennett, alexi mccannon, tim millir and cornell belcher, thank you all so much. when we come back, how the biden campaign is bracing for the legal challenges donald trump is threaten to launch after the polls close. we'll talk to a top biden campaign adviser about that. plus is 2020 the year texas

finally turns blue? record early voting is giving democrats new hope in the lone star state. and democrats are looking to rebuild their fire wall after donald trump surprise ivankas four years ago. we'll head to one battle ground state crucial to the virus. "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break so don't go anywhere. k break so don't go anywhere. ♪ i shop on rakuten. rakuten!♪ now, there's skyrizi. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 3 out of 4 people achieved... ...90% clearer skin at 4 months... ...after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections... ...and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection... ...or symptoms such as fevers,... ...sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs...

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in 2008 and 2012 you placed your trust in me and barack. i'm asking to you trust me

again. i'm proud of the coalition this campaigns that built, to welcome, democrats, republicans and independents. i'm running as a proud democrat but i'll govern as an american president. there will be no red states and blue states, just the united states and i'll work as hard for those who support me as those who do. >> joe biden is ending his bid in the state of pandemennsylvan. where he launched his campaign 18 months ago to restore the soul of america. later in hour joe biden will take the stage in pittsburgh for the twifirst of two drive-in rallies. he began with a stop in ohio before traveling to pennsylvania for the first stop there in beaver county. the biden campaign will be back in the keystone state again tomorrow. he's not the only member of the ticket in pennsylvania today. his running mate senator kamala harris started her day near

scranton before making an appearance in nearby lehigh valley. she will end in philadelphia, featuring singer john legend. joining us now deputy campaign member for the biden campaign, kate beddingfield. i know the final hours are so weird. they're like a black hole where everyone is calling everyone, what are you hearing what, are you seeing, so let me ask you, what are you hearing and what are you seeing? i know it is anecdotal, but what does it look like? >> reporte >> well, look, we feel good. i think we have numerous path ways to 270 electoral votes. i think we have more pathways to 270 electorate votes than donald trump does. we're seeing encouraging turnout in our battleground states all across country. we've obviously seen record high turnout in early vote up until this point in the campaign. so we see a tremendous amount of energy and excitement and we feel good. now obviously we take nothing

for granted. and anybody who is watching who has not voted, turnout and vote. tomorrow is your day. turn out and vote. but we feel good. we think there is a lot of energy for biden and i think we have numerous pathways to get to 270 votes tomorrow. >> and my colleague steve kornacki agrees with that assessment. could i take you through a couple of the assessments that i've heard from the other campaign. they feel better about florida than they did a few days ago and nervous about north carolina and georgia. is the inverse true for you guys? >> well, i won't say we feel nervous. i think we feel like we are turning out our voters. we're seeing independents, we're seeing the biden coalition expand in these states. i think at the end of the day, like you said, today is the day where everybody start of prognosticates and there is analysis and what does this and that mean, at the end of the day people come out and vote tomorrow and i think that we

believe that joe biden has had a winning message in this campaign. he got into the race back in april of 2019 talking about the need to unite the nation and come together. and i think that message has only gotten more powerful across the course of the last year and a half. and as we've come into this pandemic and seen donald trump knowingly lie to the american people about the virus and consistently put his own political need as head of the needs country. so i think that message that joe biden has been -- got into this race, making the case about -- has motivated people and we're really hopeful and folks should turn out and vote tomorrow. >> so you were sort of grand poobah over the legal machinations that are maybe if not a sure thing, certainly something to be prepared for. talked about having hundreds if not thousands of lawyers ready to activate from donald trump's public message of, quote, sending in his lawyers after

election night, comes to pass, you're also fundraising, both campaigns are fundraising for the possibility of this. where do you put the odds of this being what we're talking about after election night? >> well, the other thing that he said was it is very telling that donald trump is focused on his lawyers in the last few hours of this race. and not on his voters. trump has made i think very clear that he believes that the only way he could win this race is through suppression and through denying people the right to vote. obviously our campaign is committed to making sure that every vote counts. as he said, we have an operation in place ready to go. we obviously anticipate that donald trump is going to try to pull some of these shenanigans and we're prepared. we have lawyers. we are ready for that. but i think that the way that we could ensure that doesn't happen is people turning out to vote.

resoundingly voting for joe biden. we feel very good about where we are and again we're just calling everybody who has felt embarrassed by donald trump for the last four years, has felt -- has seen wages decrease, been frustrated by the inability to get kids back in school because donald trump refuses to take this virus seriously and put in place a plan. anybody who felt that in the last four years turn out and vote. this is the moment to vote for change. >> donald trump feels like his voters come out on election day. it is highly likely that the early vote has advantaged the vice president and senator harris. what is the plan to sort of keep that intensity and match the election day turnout on the other side? >> yeah, well, we have our candidates, they're out tomorrow. joe biden is back in pennsylvania tomorrow make his case, our candidates are going to be out. we have spent a lot of money on

this campaign on early vote and on education about how to vote and giving them the tools to go and vote on election day. this is a huge part of our messaging over the course of the last few months. it is reminding people about all of the options they have. which includes early vote but also includes voting on election day. so we're going to continue, we're going pedal to the metal. we're going to continue to aggressively turn people out tomorrow and encouraging people to vote and our candidates are doing local media and making sure that voters are hearing from joe biden and from kamala harris and from dr. biden and doug em hoff and know tomorrow is the day to get out and vote. >> kate, i have been through a couple of days before election days and i know there are a lot of places for to you be. i appreciate that you spent some of your day today with us. thank you so much. good luck. when we come back, powered by record breaking early votes, democrats hoping to do something

they haven't done since 1976, win texas. beto o'rourke will join us for that conversation. and plus we head out to wisconsin. "deadline: white house" back after a quick break. don't go anywhere. ♪ [ 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.

in an emergency hearing in texas, a federal judge ruled just this afternoon that more than 10,000 ballots cast through

a drive through polling place will count. denying a demand by texas republicans that they be thrown out. the judge said the plaintiffs don't have standing to sue. siding with the decision made earlier by the texas supreme court. s it just another attempt by republicans by silencing ballots that could threaten trump's election. this time with record breaking early voting turnout. more than 9 million ballots have been cast in texas, more than the 2016 election. joining our conversation is former texas congressman and presidential candidate beto o'rourke. i know that you have always believed and there were a few things that happen to line up for this to be the conversation before the election day. one was to make the nominee and his campaign believe and the other would seem to be to make the people of texas believe. and i wan to you ask if both of those things are now in motion? do you think joe biden believesco win texas and do you think democrats an biden

supporters in texas believe they could turn that state blue? >> yes on both counts. just a couple of days ago i had the opportunity to welcome senator kamala harris in texas and not just anyplace in texas, but the rio grande valley. one of the toughest places to get to but important in terms of what it means for their ability to win this state as the first democratic ticket in 44 years to do so. and as you know, that is not a charity operation. they didn't come here to make anyone feel good. they came here to try to win the state. and then you mentioned earlier that the texas voters, against the most voter suppressive laws and ongoing tactics that sought to disenfranchise 100,000 voters. they went from 50th to first in the nation to surpass 2016 voter turnout so i'm proud of this state at this moment. >> so obviously i worked for a

texas republican family for a lot of my career and the fact that joe biden is in striking distance tomorrow, a lot of credit is given to you to coming within three points of defeating ted cruz. i guess i want to put this in a what that doesn't give yourself credit, but how much changes in the state and how much of it is going out and asking for the vote which i know you do, not just on the ballot but in terms of trying to change that state. >> so i think it is in fact those organizers who have been at this not just for the last couple of cycles but for the last decade. texas organizing project is a great example. move is another one. combo in the valley, they're having conversations not just in october or november of election year, but every month thereafter, engaging with largely black and latino communities, the very communities that have been voter suppressed and intimidated in

previous election cycles. i think the credit is owed to them and their organizers who who have been at this and helping engage an electorate that is most diverse of any swing state, certainly the largest of any swing state and you saw the poll this morning, 48.1% joe biden and donald trump 48.1%. this is deciding the outcome not in days or weeks to follow, if we leave it to the pennsylvania, but could do that on election night. 38 electoral college votes an this game is over and there is no path forward for trump, no ability for him to sow chaos or confusion or contest this in the courts. by the math we'll know that the election is decided and so i really hope that texas continues to turn out in these numbers and end this is national nightmare on the night of november 3rd. >> i want to you ask how much donald trump helps that effort. we were covering the massacre at

walmart, we have covered the tragedy of donald trump's zero tolerance, family separation policy. we have covered other facinatio stories that impacted texas. how much of the trump story winding its way through that state has made this possible tomorrow? >> texas and in particular border communities like my own here in el paso are front lines of the cruelty and the cost of the trump administration. el paso where i am right now is the city hardest hit by covid. they've sit ep nup an additiona field morgue. there is no more room in the funeral homes for all of those who have died from covid. and they didn't have to. it didn't have to be like this. and these were decisions that the president and governor abbott made that cost the lives of tens of thousands of our

fellow americans. family separation, kids in cages, when you connect those dots and understand that this is a tributed not to an act of god or the way things are in texas, but the decisions made by those in public trust then the voters of texas want to change out those people in positions of public trust. as willie nelson, our gret leader says, vote him out. and that is what you're seeing with 9.7 million votes cast already. folks are ready to vote him out. >> have a lot of republican and democratic friends in the state and it is beyond dispute that there is something happening in that state. and no matter what happens tomorrow, i think a lot of people will give you a lot of credit for keeping it on everyone's radar and for being on the ground there and helping to tell the story of that state. so thank you. i hope you'll come back and continue to have this conversation regardless of what happens tomorrow. >> thank you very much. appreciate. >> good luck. we are going to dip in and listen to joe biden at a rally

in pittsburgh. let's listen in. >> -- for nine months, then he suggested that these folks, know what he said they're doing? he said doctors are falsely inflating the deaths due to covid. because they want to make more money. now think about that. the president of the united states of america, but then again it doesn't surprise me, he wouldn't do anything unless he could make more money. not a joke. everything to him is about how do you help yourself. folks, look, the people of this nation have suffered and sacrificed for nine months. none more so than our doctors and our front line health care workers. and it is the president questioning their character and their integrity, their commitment to fellow americans. the president questioning that.

it is a flat disgrace. and then last night, trump said he's going to fire dr. fauci. i got a better idea. let's fire trump and i'll hire dr. fauci. look, the president has waved the white flag of surrender to this virus. i'll never do that. his chief of staff said, last week, we're not going to control this virus. we're not going to control the virus. the first step to beating the virus is defeating donald trump. look, folks, if you know -- if we didn't know this was happening and somebody made a movie about this five years ago you would think it was all

crazy. but it is real. it's real what is happening. donald trump, by the way, keeps telling us what a great job he's been and how many jobs he's created and i was just with president obama in flint, michigan, my buddy. it is great to be a president with real character, a president respected around the world, a president our kids could look up to. but did you know president obama and i helped create more jobs in last three years of our administration than trump did in the first three years of his, even before the pandemic hit. did you know donald trump is going to be the first president in 90 years whose going to finish with his four years in office with fewer jobs under his leadership than when he started his presidency. and black unemployment remains too high. too many black businesses are shuttered for good. black owned businesses are

shutting down twice as fast as other businesses and business communities of color have shuttered because they didn't get the help, the money that congress had passed. congress passed over $2 trillion. foe the first thing the president did? he fired the inspector general. was supposed to follow where the money went. and guess what? when small businesses, they didn't get the help. they went to the mar-a-lago crowd, not a joke. his wealthy friends. he fired the inspector general. you know he sees the world from park avenue. i have seen it from scranton. i see it from where i grew up. i see it from here in pittsburgh. wall street didn't build this country, worker people built this country. middle class and, folks, i believe we should work, not

wealth in this country. y'all realize that just since the pandemic started the list of billionaires in america made another $300 billion. not a joke. $300 billion they made in the middle of the pandemic. what's going on here, folks? well i got a plan. and under my plan, i committed to you, no one making less than $400,000 will see a penny in taxes raised. but -- >> joe biden making his last appeal there in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. critically important. his former boss, former president barack obama making a closing argument for the biden/harris ticket in miami-dade. let's listen in. >> -- as the next president of the united states of america. now, listen, i got to campaign

with joe over the weekend. it felt like the old days. and i can't wait to see him back in the white house because four eight years he was the last person who left the room whenever i faced a big decision. and he made me a better president. he has the character and the experience to make us a better country. and he and kamala are in the fight not for themselves but for every single one of us. we can't say that about the president right now. i never thought that donald trump would share my vision or embrace all of my policies, but i hoped for the sake of the country that he might take the job seriously. that he put in the work. but he hasn't. he hasn't shown any interest in taking seriously the work that is involved in being president. or helping anybody but his friends. or himself, or treating the

presidency as anything more than a reality show to use to get himself attention. and the rest -- the rest of us had to live with the consequences. and grace talked about the consequences. 230,000 americans dead. more than 100,000 small businesses closed. half a million jobs gone here in florida. and as chief of staff he's admitting what we knew all along. he was quoted, saying we're not going to control the pandemic. that is a quote. we noticed. america just had its single worst week of new cases. and so what is trump's closing argument? last night on his covid spreader tour, i mean he's a superspreader, he just goes around because nothing is more

important to him than crowds to make him feel good as opposed to keep american voters safe. he said don't tell anybody but i'm going to fire dr. fauci after the election. and just in case you were worried he was taking covid too seriously, now we find out his -- his intention is to eliminate from his administration one of the world's leading experts in infectious disease. the one guy who has taken it seriously all along that he hasn't been paying attention to. he's been listening to the guy apparently who thinks, uh, injecting bleach might be a good idea, but not the actual expert on infectious disease. so they want to move out the scientists and the doctors who

understand this disease and put in people or maintain folks who don't know what they're doing. essentially, their closing argument when it comes to covid is, you ain't seen nothing yet. but this is the last chance -- this is his last chance to explain why we should give him four more years, and what you hear him talking about is his inauguration crowd being smaller than mine. after four years, that's what he's still worrying about. let it go. what is his obsession with crowd size? does he have nothing better to worry about? did no one come to his birthday party when he was a kid? >> he's compensating. >> look, that's the difference between joe and donald trump right there. that's the difference. joe cares about you. and your safety and your security. >> yes, he does. >> trump cares about feeding his

ego. i understand the president wants to take full credit for the economy he inherited but zero blame for the pandemic he ignored, but the job doesn't work that way. tweeting at the tv doesn't fix things. making stuff up doesn't make things better. you've got to have a plan. you've got to put in the work. and along with the experience to get things done, joe biden has concrete plans and policies to turn our vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into a reality. he takes this pandemic seriously. he knows how much it hurts for grandparents and grandkids who can't see each and other hug each other. he's not going to screw up testing. he's not going to call scientists idiots or put people at risk, or as he did just a few days ago, accuse medical professionals like grace of trying to profit from the pandemic, after all they've been through. ridiculous. shameful. come on.

joe will get this pandemic under control with a plan to make testing and a vaccine free for every american, and make sure front line heros like grace never have to ask other countries for the equipment they need. and his plan will guarantee paid sick leave for workers and parents affected by the pandemic. and make sure that small businesses that hold our communities together and employ millions of americans can reopen safely. and donald trump likes to claim he built this economy. america created 1.5 million more jobs in the last three years of the obama/biden administration than in the first three years of his, and that was before he could blame the pandemic. we handed him the longest streak of job growth in american history. the economic damage he inflicted by botching the pandemic response means he will be the only president since the great depression to actually lose jobs.

he talks about black unemployment. says he's the best president for black folks since abe lincoln. really? don't boo, vote. his son-in-law says, oh, black folks, they have to want to be successful. that's the problem. that's the problem, really? like 300 years of history's not the problem? listen, when it came to the economy, black unemployment almost hit 17% during the great recession ten years ago. through hard work, joe and i helped to get it down to 7.8% by the time we left office and it kept going down, not because trump did anything. this year is soared back up to 17% here in florida. his buddies at mar-a-lago may be better off than they were four years ago eight the massive tax cuts he gave them, but ordinary families here in florida, they didn't see that. now he won't extend relief to the millions of families who are having trouble paying the rent. or having trouble making

payments on their student loans. or just putting food on the table because of this pandemic. and joe biden understands the key to a strong economy isn't more tax cuts for billionaires. it's lifting up the prospects of working americans so that everybody has a chance to succeed. and that's what joe's got, a plan to create 10 million good clean energy jobs. to protect florida from climate change. to secure environmental justice. and he'll pay for those plans by rolling back trump's tax cuts for billionaires. and joe doesn't just want to get back to where we were. he sees this as a chance to make long overdue changes in the economy so everybody's life is a little bit easier. whether it's the waitress trying to raise her own kid on her own. or the student trying to figure out how to pay for next semester's classes. or the shift worker that's worried about getting laid off. or the cancer survivor who is

worried about her pre-existing condition protections being taken away. florida, i need to talk to you about health care. republicans love to say right before an election that they'll protect your pre-existing conditions. you know what? joe and i actually protected them ten years ago with the affordable care act. hispanics saw bigger gains in coverage than anybody else. almost 93% of hispanic kids got covered. an all-time high. under this administration hispanic kids have lost coverage. republicans have tried to repeal or undermine the affordable care act more than 60 times. think about that. why would you make that your mission? taking people's health care away. and with no plan. they promised. they said, don't worry, when we

get rid of this plan, we'll give you a better plan. they've been promising that for ten years now. still don't have one. i keep on looking for it. i've looked for it everywhere. you know, between the cushions in the couch. you know, it's nowhere to be found. instead, they've attacked the affordable care act at every turn. they've driven up costs. they've driven up the uninsured. now they're trying to get the supreme court to take your health care away in the middle of a pandemic at a time when families need it most. with nothing but empty promises to take its place. and think about what that would do to families right here in south florida. miami-dade has the highest enrollment under obamacare of any county in florida. florida has the highest enrollment of any state in america.

so when trump last week flat-out says he hopes the supreme court overturns obamacare, what he's saying is he wants to take your health insurance away. just said it. joe and kamala will protect your health care. joe and kamala will expand medicare. joe and kamala will make insurance more affordable than everybody because joe understands that a president's first job is to keep us safe from all threats, foreign, domestic and microscopic. so when the daily intelligence briefings that a president gets every morning has a flashing warning light saying there's a virus coming, the president can't be awol. when russia puts bounties on our soldiers' heads, the commander in chief can't be m.i.a. joe biden would never call our troops suckers or losers.

because he understands that's somebody's kid, somebody's spouse, somebody's mom or dad. when a hurricane devastates puerto rico, a president is supposed to help rebuild not toss paper towels, not suggest selling puerto rico, not withholding billions of dollars until just before an election. and here in south florida you see these ads, joe paling with communists. paling with socialists. you -- you'd think he was having coffee with castro every morning. don't fall for that. >> it's impossible to break this up. that was former president barack obama, who knows where those votes are in the state of florida. he's campaigning for joe biden on this day before election day in miami-dade.

that does it for our two hours. thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these remarkable times. if you haven't yet, go vote. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. hi, ari. >> hi, nicolle. what's going to happen? >> i don't know. what's going to happen? i hope everybody votes. i am so excited by this early vote number, and i think our next mission as a country is to smash records for same-day voting. if you don't have any sort of conditions that make the pandemic an extra scary threat for yourself or your family, to go out and vote tomorrow, be sort of the last way to button up what's been a remarkable election season. what do you think? >> i think, as you say, we have huge, record-breaking turnout. so we know more than we normally would. you and i both have worked on campaigns where a week out you really don't know much at all. so we do know there's energy. we do know the participation's way up. and that makes me wonder if that carries over to tomorrow, the