tv Election Day Decision 2020 MSNBC November 3, 2020 10:00am-11:00am PST
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if it's tuesday, it is election day. ballots are being processed, voters are voting. a staggering 100 million people already voted. all across america, a lot of democracy is in action. welcome to tuesday. and not just any tuesday. election day tuesday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd at nbc news' election headquarters right here in new york city. the big day is here. biden has been making stops in pennsylvania on his way back to delaware where he'll watch the returns tonight. president trump will be at the white house to watch returns
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after that frenzied final stretch on the campaign trail. hopeful that the enthusiasm he saw in front of his face will translate to a surge of support at the polls today. we expect to hear from the president when he speaks to campaign staff at trump headquarters in nearby arlington, virginia. they are gathering there now. now basically two key batches of states to watch tonight and beyond. the sunbelt states on your screen which trump must defend. losing any one of them would be a body blow to his chances. these states are expected to count their votes fairly quickly tonight which has made the biden campaign hopeful the winner will be known tonight, even if the race hasn't been officially called. and then the key rust belt battleground. even if trump holds all those sunbelt states, he is still going to have to win at least one or two of the rust belt states. ohio plus one other. pennsylvania is the one they think in order to get re-election. and some of those states, especially pennsylvania, could take a while to count their
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ballots. days, not hours. bottom line, the president does have a path to re-election, but it's a narrow one that likely won't be known for sure tonight, even if he does pull it off. folks, we've had a lot of so-called referendums on the president at the ballot box over the last four years. you'll remember the special elections of 2017. the midterms of 2018. even the kentucky governors race of 2019. but this election, for real this time, is a referendum on donald trump. for that, there is no doubt. our nbc news team, and it really is a team effort today is spread out around the country. peter alexander is at the white house following president trump. kristen welker in philadelphia, blayne alexander in georgia, kerry sanders is in florida. the eternal battleground state of america and trymaine lee in north carolina, another key state in the sunbelt, also determinative of the u.s. senate. so let's begin with peter alexander at the white house and, peter, it seems as if for
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the trump campaign, today is a two-state strategy. while they see how long it goes, meaning they seem to be very focused on florida, north carolina today. votes will get today to see how important pennsylvania becomes later in the week. >> chuck, you're exactly right. i spoke to a person with direct knowledge of the campaign operations who tells me they feel good about florida, north carolina and georgia right now but expressed real concerns about the turnout operations taking place right now for the trump campaign in pennsylvania. this person telling me that pennsylvania was not as prepared as it should be in a state that could decide the presidency. also saying that when you rely, you bank your entire campaign effort on election day turnout. you have to ask folks if they are willing to stand in line for a couple of hours to deliver that vote on your behalf. this is significant, chuck. it's the first real crack we're hearing within trump world today
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about a potential failure in this strategy. this person expressing frustration about how the president said don't mail in your ballot or vote absentee. that you want to go to the polls and he wanted that rush of his base of support on election day. it may work with the base, but as this person described it, what happens to all those others? what happens to moms working at home and have their kids and can't stand in line for a matter of hours. >> pete alexander, i'm going to pause you there. you ended just in time. we're going to dip in here to the campaign headquarters in arlington, virginia, where the president is going to deliver some remarks to his staff. we'll dip in there for a minute or two and get back on the trail. >> incredible rallies and incredible times. i hear we're doing very well in florida, in arizona. we're doing incredibly well in texas. we're doing -- i'm hearing we're doing well all over. i hear the lines are amazing. the lines have been amazing. i think we'll have a great
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night. we'll have a great night. and we're going to have -- much more importantly, we're going to have a great four years. i want to thank everybody. it's a tremendous group of people. come on over here. this is the media. they are very nice. come on over. come on over. young, attractive people that know politics and some day, some of the people in this room, i predict, some of them, will be president. i hope. but they've been working very hard. and i know you'll be here all night and i think you'll see some tremendous results. and, you know, we had rallies. it was love at those rallies. there's never been rallies like that. there has never been, and i say it in front of the media and they can check it, fact check it if they want. but there's never been anything like what we just had. and i think a combination of the debate, maybe the debates, but the debate, certainly the second debate, and the rallies were --
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it was a good combination. and we really -- i think we took off. so it's been really good. i want to just thank everybody in the room. you see these people. we travel with these people. they are extremely nice. and they respect very much what we've done. actually, i think they do, if you want to know the truth. i think they do. yeah, please. >> how are you feeling today? >> i feel good. after doing that many rallies, the voice gets a little choppy, i think. god did not design it for that much, but, you know, we did a lot of them. we did actually six the last day because one finished at 2:00 in the morning. so i put it on so we did five-plus sort of one. but we did a lot. and, no, i feel great, really. >> what's your message to americans who didn't vote for you? >> everybody should come together. and i think success brings us succes together. we're going to have tremendous success. we had 33 minu.1% up in growth
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gdp. no one has ever seen a number like that. the last time the number was less than half. 1952. so we doubled up the number. more than doubled up the number. i think we're set for tremendous success. and success is going to bring unity. it was bringing it before, and then we got hit with the china virus. and that certainly, you had to go back, and i think we've done an incredible job with respect to that. other than public relations because -- and i'm not sure that it's possible to convince you of it. you people were not really convincible no matter what we did. we've done an incredible job, not only in handling it. we were expecting and people were projecting 2.2 million people. we closed up the greatest economy in the history of the world for any country, not just for our country. and we are now opening it up. we saved more than 2 million lives. and did an incredible job with therapies and therapeutics and
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with, i think, maybe cures because, frankly, some of the stuff is so good. but if you look at the ventilator situation, we had a ventilator problem. now the work everyone has done, including jared, people coming in from silicon valley. and now we're sending the ventilators all over the world now. all over the world. we're producing them for other countries. but it's been an incredible period of time. and i think that if you look at -- and i say it proudly. we are rounding the corner. but the vaccines are coming out very soon. they are having tremendous success. johnson & johnson, moderna, pfizer. and we're going to have something -- we're going to have a very special year. next year is going to be more successful than it was last year. we had the best year we've ever had last year and we're going to be right in that category for next year. >> mr. president, have you
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prepared an acceptance speech and concession speech? >> no, i'm not thinking about concession speech or acceptance speech. hopefully we'll only be doing one of those two. and, you know, winning is easy. losing is never easy. not for me it's not. but i think we have -- when you see rallies, the likes of which in the history of this country, probably in the history of the world no one has ever seen before, there's a tremendous love going on in this country. and there's really a tremendous unity. there's a tremendous unity. no one has ever seen that where you take an airport and the airport is not big enough to hold the crowds. nobody has ever seen a thing like that. and our opposition, as you know, we have a few people sitting in circles. and that's okay. that's not abnormal. that's not abnormal actually. that's the way it is. but we would get crowds of 50,000 people, 45,000 people. more. nobody has ever seen anything like that. so always an honor.
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they're great people. these are people that they appreciate what we did and they always remembered before i got there and before we all got there. this group has been with me. a lot of them very young but they've been with me, many of them for a long time, right? a long time. and i just really came here to thank you all. and then i'm going to say and get immediately back to work. [ applause ] >> president trump there expressing some confidence about election day as you heard. not thinking about either a victory speech or concession speech there. but once again some standard defensive posture, if you will, when it comes to the virus. some very familiar talking points there. let me move now. we just got -- that's basically your extended update on the trump campaign. now to the biden side of things. kristen welker is in philadelphia. what's interesting, kristen, in all the battleground states
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today, 100 million have voted but today, there's going to be some 50 million to 60 million people vote. and the state with the most people voting today is where you are. the state of pennsylvania. >> that's right, chuck. i'm outside of a polling location where i can tell you early in the morning, there was some really long lines here. it's petered out in the middle of the day but i've been talking to voters. there's an immense amount of enthusiasm here in this battleground state. of course, this is where joe biden is today. he made a top in scranton. of course, he was born in scranton. he stopped by his childhood home where he spent so many years. and now he's in philadelphia really trying to energize voters to get out and vote today because, as you know, chuck, back in 2016, the democrats did not get the numbers they needed in philadelphia in the suburbs of philadelphia. they didn't chip away at donald trump's lead back then in the northeast part of the state. that is what they are trying to
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do today. now why pennsylvania? joe biden does not need pennsylvania in order to win, but his campaign aides say, look if they can pull out a victory here in pennsylvania, it would become very difficult for president trump to win. but the campaign says it is feeling confident today because they do feel as though they have a number of different paths which rely heavily on those midwestern states, michigan, wisconsin, and they would like to pull out a win here. now, in terms of those other big states you were talking about with peter, florida and north carolina, of course, they have been aggressively campaigning in those battleground states as well. but they argue they do not need a win in order to win the white house. i was just talking to some campaign officials and asked them about part of what president trump was just talking about. the fact he's had so many rallies. some democrats privately, a little concerned that joe biden hasn't had the same aggressive rally schedule that we've seen from president trump. one campaign aide said to me, we
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feel confident we left it all on the field. so we'll see if that's the case. joe biden is going to end his night in delaware. he'll watch returns with his family, chuck. >> kristen welker in philadelphia. thank you. now let's go south. and it's the one red state that democrats feel the most confident about right now. blayne alexander is in georgia right now. blayne, what are you seeing today? we actually don't expect a ton of vote today since so much of the vote has already come in. >> that's exactly right, chuck. if you ever wanted to look for an example of what happens when people come out en masse and vote early like they did here in georgia, you're looking at it. let me walk you to the precinct. you look inside. you can barely see inside. not a lot of people there. if this area where i'm standing looks familiar to you, that's because i was standing in this same place talking to you about five months ago during georgia's june primary. when you and i were talking then, there were people lining this sidewalk. they were going all the way up to the stop sign, turning right
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and turning right again waiting to cast their ballots. we're talking about people waiting in line for four or five hours. that's what we saw back in june. today, i talked with a couple of volunteers who said people have been streaming in and out. no lines. no waits. this is the second precinct we've been to. the other one had the same exact thing and they saw lines of four-hour waits back in june. that precinct manager attributes it to early voting. it's really quite unheard of, chuck. this is fulton county, the most populous county in georgia. metro atlanta, of course. when you look across, wait times are all under 30 minutes. and all of this is underscored by the fact that georgia has a newly minted battleground status so all eyes are looking to see how georgia goes tonight and how the elections are handled here. >> blayne alexander in georgia. it is odd considering you're not monitoring lines. but again, it's because we've had weeks of this voting happening already. thanks very much. now to the mother of all battleground states where we
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find kerry sanders in the state of florida. this is another case. an astonishing 9-plus million floridians have already voted. so today we only expect 2.5 million people total to vote. i assume you're seeing the same thing we're seeing in georgia which is no lines. >> i'm at precinct 120 in st. petersburg. there's very few voters here indeed. we saw some lines this morning when the polls opened at, well, 7:00. but they've went through those lines pretty quickly. florida, after that 2000 disaster really recognized that they needed to rebuild the system here. in the process of rebuilding the system, they built a system that gave people access to early voting and ualso mail-in ballot. collectively, thoorat's been wi coronavirus, a choice many floridians have chosen. 9 million voters voting before. i keep thinking one of the interesting points is that some
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of these voters have been voting for so long. both campaigns have spent a record amount in florida. $264 million spent on advertising in florida. so many of those voters had already voted as the money being spent. turn on any television station in the state of florida and it's almost like nonstop ads today on election day. chuck? >> we're all doing the math here. use all that money. voters in florida. you might have been able to cut out the middle man. anyway, kerry sanders in st. petersburg, which piniellas, one of the few swing counties left in florida, and one we'll be watch vrg closely. thanks very much. we round out our look with trymaine lee in north carolina. north carolina could tell us the direction of two key parts of tonight's election night. the battle for the presidency but also the battle for control of the senate. >> this one which hillary
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clinton lost narrowly back in 2016 is front and center again. only 15 electoral votes but clears the path to make it a little easier for joe biden to make its way toward the white house. now the story as we've heard around the country has been early voting. more than 4 million voters in north carolina have already voted. and the black vote is especially central in this race where of the 1.5 million registered black voters, 900,000 have already voted. and so while we haven't seen the lines that we were expecting, they say that, you know, it's because folks were voting early. some precincts only see two, three, four names left on the list. you mention that senate race between cal cunningham and thom till chis which is neck and nec. cunningham is weathering the scandal. neck and neck with his democrat dealing with a sexting scandal. it threw things in the air again. the 15 electoral votes could create a nice path for joe biden
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but we'll see. we're waiting for the turnout that many folks are saying maybe we'll see more folks coming in. but slow and steady, chuck. >> we know what this means in north carolina. it's a margin state. it's all about who runs up the score in their important counties makes it even harder to track. trymaine lee, thanks for getting us started. i want to go back to peter alexander because the president, after he said thank you and good-bye and we moved on, he took a few more questions. had a few more things to say about balloting in philadelphia. so, peter alexander, give us a summary of what else the president said in those -- in that improommptu gaggle. >> the president has been expressing frustration in recent days about this plan in pennsylvania that they will continue to receive mail-in ballots for the next three days as long as they're postmarked by today. the president in recent days as he did again today has insisted this would be cheating and would
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cause chaos. that it would unleash violence in the streets. twitter even flagging that tweet. the president really frustrated about this because he recognizes how tight pennsylvania is for him right now and those remarks just moments ago as you heard the president say. he's yet to prepare a concession or acceptance speech. he hopes to write one and not the other. he said that success is going to bring about unity. when asked specifically what he would say to those who did not vote for him today, assuming that he wins another term going forward and he said, winning is easy. losing for me is not easy. so for now we wait and see. this is supposed to be the last time we see the president until later today. he was two hours late for this event. while there was wallpaper of joe biden out visiting with voters, the president was off tv for a matter of hours. you could sense that urgency to put him out there and rev up the troops on this big day. >> peter alexander, thank you. here's one more live look at
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philadelphia where the vote processing business is brisk. democrats pushed early voting and mail-in voting hard. what about election day voting? we'll ask david plouffe about that next. be sure to stay with the networks of nbc news throughout the day and into the night and back into the morning. i'll be streaming live on nbc news now with a special hour of early coverage starting at 5:00 p.m. and then i'll join lester, savannah and andrea at 7:00 p.m. on nbc broadcast and on simulcast on nbc news now. and on msnbc, nicolle wallace starts our special election coverage at 4:00 p.m. eastern followed by chris hayes at 5:00 and then brian, rachel, joy and nicolle. and they'll pick up coverage at 6:00 p.m. and they promise to be here until the sun rises. we'll be right back. really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
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>> welcome back. as we've been saying, voters are voting. polls are open all across the country. nationally, nearly 100 million people had already voted before this morning. more than twice what we saw four years ago. when you break don the early vote by party, more of those votes belong to democrats. more republicans are expected to turn out to vote in person today and the question of how many more could be the deciding factor in key battleground states. and breaking news just now. a u.s. district judge ordered the postal service inspectors or their designees to sweep all postal facilities by 3:00 p.m. eastern to ensure no ballots anywhere in the country have been held up and that any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery before the polls close. joining me is a former obama campaign manager david plouffe. also an msnbc political analyst. before the democratic party and i would argue it started with iowa about a decade or so ago became enamored with early vote, election day turnout, this was
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something you had to do. you cut your teeth in jersey and in pennsylvania. so you know all about this. look at this chart we put together. you'll appreciate this. today, the expected voters today, and we put the battleground states in order. pennsylvania we expect to have the most voters voting today at 4.7 million. and that's the state with more voters showing up today. florida, for instance, where we've already had 9 million. we only expect another 2.5 million today. the point is this. it looks like pennsylvania, ohio, michigan and florida are the only states today where we expect 2 million or more voters. what does this tell you, number one, and how nervous does it make you? >> well, first of all, as an operative, what it means is, in most states now you've got a very small get out the vote universe. so if you are a democratic campaign, whether you are the biden campaign or local, you've got a more manageable number of people that haven't voted that you can knock on their doors or
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call or text. number two, i think in every battleground state, texas may be about tied. biden enters today with a significant lead. so the question is, can trump catch up? there's a couple components to that. biden has to have strong enough turnout to win the senate. trump has to overperform on election day. of course, we look at numbers of democrats and republicans and i think the question is not affiliated voters. you know, i think we'll break biden in most states. what that means is -- let's say trump gets 6%, 7% of the democratic vote. you'd much rather be biden heading into election day because you have a lead. you know trump is going to come, his people are coming today and these margins are going to close. so the question is, you know, did democratic turnout, is it strong enough today to make up for that late election day surge? we'll see in every state, on behalf of trump, but particularly pennsylvania. pennsylvania is going to be up
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to two-thirds election day vote. very different than the rest of the battlegrounds. >> what's keeping you nervous right now? is it the fact that, you know, the democrats close in just a very pandemic first way, but, you know, that physical momentum that you sometimes want to feel and maybe it doesn't matter. maybe that's a visual that doesn't matter because of banked vote. what's got you nervous right now? >> listen, chuck. you remember back in 2012, there was all these columns written saying romney was going to win because there was people overflowing out some of parking garage in pittsburgh. i'm not worried about that. but so -- and i think momentum matters in politics. this has been a stable race. but biden certainly, i don't think, lost any momentum. his leads were stable. we see a lot of enthusiasm amongst young voters and new voters. what worries me is election day turnout. this is during a pandemic. you know, that is what concerns
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me. and it should concern any democrat and that's why so many people have signed up to work, get out the vote shifts today, is, can you bring that last pool of people. in some battleground states we're only talking about 10% to 15% of the electorate left. you have to make sure you get your share of that. that's what concerns me is election day turnout because i think joe biden enters today in a strong position but we saw in 2016, as you know, chuck, you know florida really well. those early vote numbers suggested hillary clinton was close to a lock in florida. and you know trump really blew out the doors on turnout. we struggled in some places. we've seen it happen. >> all right. the sunbelt state that you would -- you feel most confident that democrats flip from going arizona, georgia, florida, texas, north carolina. what's the one you expect -- >> this is a really fun conversation to have, actually. so i would say arizona, number one. and if you allow me a second, i think georgia may be in the number to slot which is
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remarkable. we can talk later after the election what that means -- >> i might have ranked it the other way. georgia over arizona today but that's interesting that you pick arizona one and georgia two. a lot of republicans seem to be more confident of arizona these days than georgia. i don't know what that says about georgia. >> right. well, something special has happened in turnout in georgia and texas. will it be enough? we'll see. but the texas story in particular, which, you know, that really has not been a core battleground state. it's going to end up as one. that's beto o'rourke and grassroots organizers getting at it and staying with it after '18. you and i will spend time after the election, if those states become competitive more often than not going forward, it really changes american politics. >> i was just going to say, in fact, instead of sitting here and wanting to do one more second on north carolina and florida, i want to talk about that. regardless of what happens tonight, there's going to be a lot of two and three-point races in the sunbelt. the midwest is -- you and i have spent our first 50 years of our
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life with the midwest deciding american politics. does that end in 2024? >> well, we'll see. so i think one question coming out of this, because we saw in the sunbelt great democratic results in '18 and at least super competitive in '20. how much of that is trump versus, you know, just a natural evolution? and so those things are reliably competitive. the electoral college is not static. wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. i certainly think for the next two or three election cycles will be competitive. but you know, they may get harder for democrats over time. we were able to accelerate georgia, colorado and virginia. if you can get arizona, georgia, texas. florida is always going to florida. it's just going to be close. if the rest of those become something you can reliably compete in and win some of the times, so, yeah, i think the conversation changes. listen, '76 was a long time ago. ford wins new england and the west.
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carter wins the south and the plains. >> it was the last time that map was relevant. i have a theory tonight that a new map after this election, that this might be the sort of -- the end of this map that you and i have been living with, arguably, since 1996. david plouffe, always good to talk with you on election day. >> thanks, chuck. >> see you later. still ahead -- we'll head to ohio. governor mike dewine joins us live on this election day. also a live look at title town usa, i mean green bay, wisconsin. while we're all talking about trump and biden, it could shift the senate as well. i'm going to head to the big board and play with one of our toys we haven't been able to play with yet for the senate. that's next. two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in debt. ah, sofi literally changed my life. it was the easiest application process. sofi made it so there's no tradeoff between my dreams
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it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold. the election is still happening right now. it's not over. >> okay. thanks, guys. >> thank you, senator. >> that was kamala harris. she's campaigning today in detroit, michigan. michigan is one of those states with a lot of people voting today which is why you see these candidates, these principals in pennsylvania and michigan and you see kamala harris' husband is in columbus, ohio. another heavy election voting state. big political prize tonight. control of the senate. i'm at the big board to look at how some of these senate races could shake out tonight and ways each party could come out on
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top. joining me to tell us what it can tell us about the race as a whole, david wasserman, an nbc news contributor and important part of our nbc news election team tonight. and our boiler room. just so you can see what i've done here. these are the competitive senate races. i've put them right now where we think, you know, what the expected outcomes of some of the semileaners or toss-up tilts. it leaves me with seven that i think we'll not -- that we may or may not get some outcome tonight. i'm mostly focused on, because maine, georgia run-off and alaska. i know we're not going to get those results. and i think montana is a state we may not get results from tonight. but georgia, the perdue seat, north carolina and iowa, those three tonight feel like they are the ones we'll get results tonight and they'll be signals. what are you looking for? what do you expect?
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>> yeah, chuck, the biggest question mark in the senate is georgia. my colleague at the cook report jessica taylor has a fabulous senate overview of all the competitive races you can check out at cookpolitical.com. we'll be watching early in the night, certainly north carolina. a good indicator of both the presidential and senate race will be new hanover county, which is wilmington. democrats haven't won that at the presidential level since michael jordan was growing up there in 1976. also we have to see what some of the obama to trump zones in north carolina look like. robison county, north carolina, is a county that fits that description. the sand hills region. if biden is winning that county tonight, that's a great sign for him. but more importantly for cal cunningham in the senate, is he able to perform down ballot in a place with ancestral democrats. we'll see if he can build his margin against thom tillis.
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and then georgia, not only the metro atlanta area but also what does black turnout look like in southern georgia? i'll be watching peach county that voted for obama twice but flipped to trump because black voting plummeted. not just in the suburbs we've talked about all year but also in rural georgia, in south texas. so we'll see. >> of iowa, north carolina and georgia, which state is the most likely to produce a presidential and senate winner from different parties? >> so in georgia, look, i think biden has to win the state to allow democrats a chance of winning the perdue seat outright. the irony in georgia is democrats only have an opportunity to win that perdue seat outright tonight, but if both of these race goes to run-off, the better chance could be against kelly loeffler in the other seat. i think iowa is going to be on a
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knife's edge. we could see trump carry that state and democrats win it narrowly. that's really one of the tipping points as far as how well democrats are doing in the senate tonight. we're simply not going to know montana for a while. >> yeah, no, that's why i put it in this column. i have my hunch on montana. i am -- i think it ends up leaning "r" here, but it is going to be one that we won't see -- i don't think we'll get the full results tonight. those tight races there it takes a few days. just ask jon tester. let me go big picture. you did something on the spread of the popular vote. and i want to -- it looks to me if we believe that the president's job rating is the ballot for him at some point, then he's looking at 45. joe biden has been polling 51, 52 or 53. 53-45 is one thing. 51-45 is another nationally. but if we're staring at an eight-point national, what does that tell you about the electoral college? >> well, an eight-point
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national, which is where the polls roughly have it right now, would be at a pretty thin line between joe biden winning around 290 electoral college votes and 400 electoral college votes. and the reason is at eight points there would be a lot of states that are right on the gu bubble. also ohio and iowa. and so it could -- an eight-point win could look like an electoral blowout or it could look like simply joe biden getting the job done. once you start getting into the three or four percent win range in the popular vote for joe biden. we'll have no idea what the final margin is for weeks in the popular vote, but that's when things get dicey in the electoral college. >> of these early states, tell me what you will learn from virginia. we'll have virginia, we may be at 95% reporting, you know, before 8:30 there. right? what could that tell us nationally? >> well, virginia has been in the vanguard of this reordering of our political map that is
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under way. and that could take a huge step forward tonight if democrats do break through in other sunbelt states. in virginia, we're going to be watching places like chesterfield county in the richmond suburbs which democrats report is won for president in forever. joe biden is likely to flip that county blue this time around. what does turnout look like in south side, virginia, one of the key house races we're watching is in the charlottesville district that also connects with south side. and so that is going to be important for determining how big nancy pelosi's majority is, how much insurance she has if the political environment worsens for democrats in 2022. >> all right. and let's close by -- let's play the texas game, all right? and, you know, it feels like it's going to be really close. it feels like it's probably the democrats are probably going to come up less than a beto o'rourke performance short perhaps. but even if it is 1, 1 1/2
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points, that's not a state we'd call for a few hours if not longer. >> yeah, chuck. i believe texas will be within one or two points either way. and the interesting twist in texas is that joe biden is absolutely cleaning up in the major metro suburbs. i talked to republican consultants who were terrified of losing the state house which is going to be decided by all of these very purple suburbs of austin, houston, san antonio and dallas. and yet, donald trump's path to holding on to texas by a thread is probably overperforming with low-income hispanic voters in places like south texas and along the border where we are seeing trump potentially win a slightly higher share than he did in 2016. so do those two things offset or do democrats break through all over the place and it's a close call. >> i've heard from a lot of democrats who are not liking what they've seen at the border. very quickly, dave wasserman, one of the reasons the
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likelihood we'll know who controls the senate tonight, alaska we know we won't get results tonight. maybe a georgia. maybe iowa, maybe north carolina. if those three go different ways, and not to one party, then it could be, what, a week before we know the senate? >> it could be a few days. and, look, north carolina is going to be, i think, the most important race that will probably have a very good idea of who is ahead. or who has won it tonight. but then we'll also be looking at maine. and if that race is -- >> that's a black box. >> -- tied heading into an instant run-off. if sarah gideon is ahead, we can be reasonably confident that democrats will end up contr controlling maine. and the path for least resi resistance is arizona, colorado and maine. >> as one person said to me if the democrats are counting on the georgia run-offs to get them the majority, that's not messagingwise, a place they want
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to be. dave wasserman, thanks. it's going to be an interesting night/morning. after the break, i'll speak with ohio governor dewine. first a look at new york city where voters have been lined up to cast their ballots. not quite as busy as we're used to. we've been asking to voters what they'll be thinking about when it's their turn behind the curtain. >> this is my first time voting so i'm really excited. that's why i came here early. >> well, i wanted to vote because i think it's important to have a voice. and so you don't get this opportunity but every four years. >> floim hareedom hangs in the . we're this close to changing this country for the rest of my life and for my kids' lives. >> i just think i want to make sure that things are taken care of and that we don't wind up in a society that makes me nervous for my kids. >> i vote on election day. i don't vote before election day. i'll telling you, the folks
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across the street, i love it. there's nothing like election! tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. guidance to help you stay on track, no matter what comes next. ♪ every minute. understanding how to talk to your doctor about treatment options is key. today, we are redefining how we do things. we find new ways of speaking, so you're never out of touch. it's seeing someone's face that comforts us, no matter where. when those around us know us, they can show us just how much they care. the first steps of checking in,
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janssen can help you explore cost support options. tremfya®. uncover clearer skin that can last. irresistibly smooth chocolate. ♪ to put the world on pause. lindor. made to melt you. by the lindt master chocolatier. welcome back. we're seeing long lines at polls in battleground states across the country including ohio where today we expect about 3.1 million voters to cast their ballot in person after 3.4 million ohioans voted earlier absentee by mail. until this year, ohio never
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surpassed 2 million early votes. unlike in some other states, all absentee ballots postmarked by yesterday, but received within 10 days of the election, will be counted. that is despite president trump's insistence that all b s ballots must be received by today. >> you know, we have a day that's called november 3rd. we don't have a date that says many days later. we don't have a date that says you're allowed to go and start, you know, putting your vote in later and we can tabulate it later. take your time. the whole world is waiting to find out. >> with me now is mike dewine, the republican governor of ohio, and i appreciate you coming on. i want to talk to you about a lot of things. you have run in a lot of elections. you are not on the ballot today. i'm sure you're relieved not to be. you get to be an observer. but tell me how to watch ohio tonight. tell me how i'm going to know which way the state's tipping. how -- you've been through these
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elections. you've won some and lost some. how do you know if it's a good night for the blue team or red team? >> things have really changed in the last decade. they certainly changed four years ago. the ohio valley, the steubenville, youngstown area, i think the presidentvalley, the steubenville, youngstown area, president trump will do well there. he'll roll through western ohio and the small counties and maybe have even a bigger margin than he had four years ago. you know, in the suburbs it's going to be tough. suburbs around columbus, for example. the president is certainly not going to do as well as you would have expected a republican president 12 years ago or so. i think we're looking at a close race. the first votes that are going to be counted are going to be the absentee votes and the people who have voted in person. >> oh, interesting. >> before election day. those will come up pretty early. we don't have to -- our people can get them ready.
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basically you sort of push a button at 7:30 and you start seeing those numbers. clearly, biden is going to be ahead by a significant number at first. and then it's a question, can the president catch up during the night? >> very interesting and an important nugget there. you're pretty confident that we'll get to 95% to 100% -- we're not going to get to 100%. there are military overseas ballots, which i assume the president would like to see counted today, after election day. when would ohio get to 95% of its expected vote? >> well, you could have that by 10:00. we don't know for sure but you certainly could. we're going to know tonight unless it's a really, really close race. >> we have called ohio before 11:30, i think, three straight elections. let me get to the virus. you have probably seen the reports from dr. deborah birx.
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when is a time you did a coronavirus call where the vice president or president was on it? >> i think two weeks ago. may have been three. the vice president is the constant throughout this. he's been phenomenal. the president has been on some, but the vice president has been just doing a very, very good job with that. chuck, we're seeing a big spike in ohio. a month ago, four weeks ago we were 1,000 cases a day. today we're like 4,100 cases a day. our positivity rate has gone from 2.5% to 8%. so, we're seeing a big, big spike. i guess my message to the people of ohio is whoever wins this election, we have to pull together and fight our common enemy. our common enemy is this virus. it doesn't care whether you voted for trump or biden, it's coming after us. >> what do you want to do next?
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we know politically just how -- and, frankly, we know psychologically, hard lockdowns, i know that's being ruled out. i don't want to get into that debate, but are you thinking about any increased restrictions? >> what we really need is for ohioans throughout the state, in all areas, to wear a mask. we can get 90% mask compliance, it will make a huge difference. it will knock this virus down. >> is it time to mandate that? >> we've already mandated it. it's been mandated for some time. >> how do we get to 90%? >> yeah, here's the challenge. well, i think more people are starting to see it. i've been doing calls around the state the last few days. i think people are starting to feel, okay, it's here. in the rural areas, in the spring and summer, it wasn't really there. now they're seeing it. they're seeing neighbors who are getting sick. i think we're going to be able to get that up. the big challenge is the people who are focused on -- you know, we're really seeing the spread
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in people's individual lives. ain't whole lot of spread in school, not a whole lot of spread in businesses, but we're seeing it at weddings, we're seeing it at baby showers, we're seeing people get together to watch a football game. that's where we've got to get people to understand. they can't let their guard down just because they're with a friend or extended family. they have to be very, very careful and wear a mask and keep the distance. >> you've been running for office in the republican party for a couple of decades. you've seen the republican party sort of move ideologically in sort of different focuses. maybe sometimes national security focus, populism focus. where is this party headed after tonight? >> well, i think we have to see what happens tonight. the republican party, if you just look at ohio, we're getting a lot of votes out of the rule
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areas. even the rural areas that 20 years ago would have been, you know, conservative democrat areas. we're getting a lot of votes out of the ohio valley. so, we're really appealing a lot more to working men and women. i know that's been historically what the democrats have done. you've really seen a real switch in regard to that. and i think we have to do that, but we have to continue to reach out. you know, we can't write off the suburbs. we can't write off the cities. our party needs to always stand for opportunity. if we can continue to impress upon people by our actions and what we do that we are the party of opportunity, that we give them and their kids the best chance of having a better life, that's really what our vision has to be. >> that's what we have to do. >> do you feel like you'll have a responsibility as an elected republican from a large state like ohio, do you think you'll have the responsibility to calm the waters if the president
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doesn't like the results and is stirring the pot? >> i've been asked that question before and certainly i will speak out, but i don't think that's going to happen. we've not had that throughout our history, not recent history. we've lived through tough elections. those who lose accept that. i sent a letter sunday to people in the state of ohio. i basically said, this thing is going to be over with we think wednesday morning. we have to pull together and put our differences apart. we have more in common than we have differences. we have a common enemy and we better fight that enemy right now. >> governor dewine, republican from ohio, like i said, you're probably enjoying being an observer today, not on the ballot. we'll watch together. thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you. thank you all for spending a little time with us this election day. i'll see you again in a few
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