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good morning, everyone and welcome to night three of msnbc's continued special coverage of the 2020 presidential race. it is 2:00 a.m. on the east coast, 11:00 p.m. out west. i'm ayman mohyeldin. >> five key battleground states. arizona, georgia, pennsylvania and north carolina are still too close to call. we've been watching as more and more votes trickle in tonight moving this hotly contested race closer and closer to a resolution. in georgia, the race is too close to call, with joe biden and donald trump separated by less than 2,000 votes right now. 12,067. remember, this is the state of georgia. also all eyes are on pennsylvania where joe biden has been chipping away steadily at the president's early lead. the vast majority of the outstanding votes in pennsylvania are coming in mail-in ballots, and those have been breaking dramatically in

biden's favor. winning the state would be enough to push him over the 270 threshold making joe biden the president-elect. tensions remain high across the country as we patiently await those results. >> all right. so, thursday evening donald trump held a press conference from the white house. this marked the first time we have publicly seen the president since 3:00 a.m. on election night. now, during his remarks trump continuously made baseless and false claims about massive voter fraud and rallied against polling organizations saying they, quote, suppressed the vote. trump has been blasting out similar falsehoods on twitter all week long. they have been repeatedly flagged for misinformation. because of that we have seen supporters of the president rallying outside ballot counting facilities. this is maricopa county,

arizona, just steps away from where those last critical ballots are still being counted at this hour. >> so let us start, as you know we will, with steve kornacki who is at the big board. steve, my eyes have been glued to the television. i'm glblaming you because i haven't had a nap today. i can't blame you because you have not had a nap either. pennsylvania, we've been getting votes in from philadelphia. what are we expecting to get in the next few hours? >> yeah, that's the question, and i think philadelphia may be the only place in pennsylvania to look for that in the next few hours. there are outstanding mail ballots, outstanding absentee ballots from a number of counties across the state of pennsylvania. but it looks like the only ones who are going 24/7 who are up all night with us are philadelphia. they are continuing to count the ballots. i have some live stream keyed up here. i was watching counts taking place in other counties. i'm seeing dark rooms, chairs

with nobody sitting in them. it appears those places have shutdown for the night. but philadelphia continues to release votes. they're doing it generally every couple of hours. we had one i would say 30 minutes ago that knocked another 3500 or so votes off donald trump's statewide lead. that now sits at 18,229. the trump lead, 18,229. just to give you a sense of what we are waiting on, philadelphia itself, the number now is about 54,000, 54,000 absentee ballots yet to be counted and released there. biden in philadelphia is winning the absentee vote now. he's getting 90% of it, about 90% of it. every collection of returns we have seen come out of there, it's been right at that level. so there is not any reason to suspect it's going to change much as that vote is tallied up.

there are outstanding votes, about 10,000 of them in bucks county. about 10,000 of them in lehigh county. that's where allentown is. we know they are done for the night so we won't get any votes there in the next few hours. 35,000 ballots in allegheny. there was a complicated issue where the court stepped in. they could not count the ballots yesterday -- yes, yesterday. they could not count the ballots thursday. they could begin counting them today. they've got 35,000 to get through. again, there is a scattering of ballots elsewhere. delaware county is one place we've been keeping an eye on. the bottom line is the trend we've been seeing in this state is very clear. it's very stark. and it's just consistent across the board. joe biden is winning the mail-in vote in pennsylvania, winning the mail-in vote by an extremely

wide margin, three quarters of it across the state. even the most republican counties in pennsylvania, when they count the mail-in ballot which they've been doing the last day or two, it's going for biden. so every place that we get a report from, biden is gaining on, and you just look at the numbers here, the number of votes left out. the fact he is winning three quarters of it on average statewide. there are more than enough votes for joe biden at the current pace to catch donald trump and to move significantly ahead of him. so it's just -- it seems like it's a question right now, unless there is a major change in this trend, unless we suddenly see vote returns and we say, gees, suddenly trump is winning the absentee vote. unless there is a major unforeseen trend here, biden is on pace to catch president trump and to move significantly ahead of him in pennsylvania as these

remaining absentee votes are tallied up. again, philadelphia is the place to be looking now the next few hours. it's certainly the place i'm looking. they have cameras there. i think be we've been showing the scenes. it's a busy room still. we may get another update or two in the coming hours in philadelphia. we'll see what that does. presumably how much into trump's lead biden is able to further cut. that is the story line of the night. also we can get into it if you want, georgia, there is some stuff going on there as well. >> let me quickly ask you about the trend you're talking about. have you been able to deduce a percentage of how much joe biden has been consistently winning in these mail-in ballots to anticipate when he may surpass donald trump? >> yeah, i mean, the numbers statewide if you average everything together that you're getting, biden is getting 75% -- 75, 76% of the mail-in vote.

that's when you average it out. it varies. a deeply biden city, biden is getting 90% plus of the mail-in vote. we saw this one earlier come in, carbon county. it's small republican, overwhelmingly trump county. it is a 2-1 trump county overall. yet when they counted up the mail-in vote in carbon county joe biden was getting 63% of it. in a republican county he's getting 63 in heavily democratic philadelphia he's getting 91. delaware 81% of it. it averages out to 75% statewide. but that's consistent. we have not found any counties in donald trump is winning on that mail-in vote. we haven't seen any county come in the mail vote and suddenly trump's lead gets bigger. it only gets smaller, it only

gets smaller. remember this thing was sitting election night into the next day. there were times trump was sitting hundreds of thousands of votes, the' come down an hour let's get that called up again. 1829. president trump won this state in 2016. his final winning margin was 46,000 votes. that's already been cut by tour thirds. it only seems to be moving away from him now. >> steve, to be abundantly clear, to be cautious, we don't make the calls here. that is the nbc news decision desk. when you look at the trends in pennsylvania where the outstanding vote is, how joe biden has been doing with the vote that is currently outstanding, there is very little doubt that he is going to overtake donald trump. what it seems to be by a significant margin. >> yeah, i mean we said if you gave him 75 -- if biden got 75%

of what's outstanding, let me get the exact number here of the votes that are left to come in in pennsylvania. i'm just -- okay. so right now the total number of uncounted mail-in ballots in pennsylvania is about 163,000, okay. that's a rough figure there. 163,000 give or take a coup couple,0couple thousand. they are opening these ballots, processing them, making sure they're valid. remember, if you've been following this closely in pennsylvania, these have to be in two envelopes. there is an inner envelope they have to be in. a l a lot of counties, it seems, are finishing up their mail-in ballots. not every one of them is getting turned into a vote that gets counted. presumably there are administrative issues raised with some of the ballots. i'm looking at ballots that basically -- they still have what are listed as uncounted

mail-in ballots. it may be of this pool of 163,000 as they run through them tonight, tomorrow, maybe only about 140,000 or so. let's be conservative here. let's say maybe 140,000 of these right now in this first pass at least are deemed valid votes get included. if you take that 140,000, right, let's take out the old trustical cambridge analyticaer. it will give him a statewide average 140,000. >> 105,000. >> bingo, 105,000. ayman gets the gold star. 105,000 to 35,000. 70,000 vote difference. that would be biden netting 70,000 votes. that's the wrong button. biden would net 70,000 votes. and he's down by 18, so we would be adding 70,000 here.

he's down 18,000 now so you can cut that down, 53,771. that would be the margin in pennsylvania. some of these mail-in ballots might not be counted because of signature issues or something. he gets 75% of what's remaining. that's the ballpark of where this could land at current trajectory. so that's what we're seeing. it's one thing to see the trend. >> right. >> in theory, on paper, on the screen. it's another thing to see it happen when the votes are counted. >> if he wins, if joe biden overtakes donald trump by a significant enough margin and wins the state of pennsylvania, it's over. he's passed 270. that is the whole shebang. >> here's the road to 270. the drama was ruined. it's supposed to be here, i say katie, he has 253.

if he wins pennsylvania, that would put joe biden over 270. >> that's the map i can do. i know pennsylvania is 20 electoral votes. that is math i can do. can you go over if pennsylvania doesn't break as quickly as we expected to break, run us through what we're seeing in georgia right now. because i know it's dramatically close there and also what we're seeing in arizona. >> get me over to georgia. okay, here we go. in georgia the margin now trump's lead is 1,0267 votes. this continues to tick down very, very slowly. what's happened here is we have gotten a number of incremental reports. i think like five or six of these at this point referenda clayton county, hugely democratic territory. joe biden is winning clayton county 85% of the vote.

here is the metro vote there are a number of votes in clayton county and they're releasing them 300 at a time. every 30, 45 minutes, we keep getting. we've had two recent updates from clayton county, one in the last ten minutes. they've had the result -- the last two just cut about 500 votes off trump's statewide lead. there's more to come from there. the ballots from clayton alone, once they are all counted, clayton by itself right now in isolation would put biden over trump, we think, statewide in this tally. it's not the only place with statewide vote. gwinnett county, there is outstanding vote in gwinnett county. i think there may be a few votes left, this is forsyth county. trump not doing as badly with the mail-in votes as he is in the democratic areas. there are some pieces of real estate here left besides clayton

county. on the whole there is clearly an opportunity here for joe biden to move ahead of donald trump and to take the lead in georgia. the thing in georgia that's different from pennsylvania, you don't see biden with the potential to move ahead with 50,000 votes as we showed you in pennsylvania. in georgia, if you're within 0.5%, the loser -- either candidate, but the loser can ask for the recount. you have that recount provision in place if this thing finishes either way within 0.5%. it's very unlikely to do that. can you call the state if biden jumps ahead and every vote is accounted nor. there is the issue, there are overseas ballots, military ballots that theoretically can arrive -- i was going to say tomorrow. the end of today. it's probably not going to be many, but there is a theoretical

possibility everyone who sent one sent it and it could arrive today. that's the only thing that could cause a bit of delay here, getting clarity, getting some sort of call out of georgia. >> you can see what's going on in arizona. in pennsylvania it's biden trying to clean up on the late votes and trying to take the lead in arizona. it's trump tying to do that. trump trails. biden has the statewide lead that keeps dropping. it's 47,000 votes for biden right now. about 24 hours ago at this time it was almost double that. it's dropped that much in 24 hours. it's because the type of ballot, this is sort of the final grouping of ballots that's being counted up by these counties all around arizona. this particular one, it's pretty clearly established now is pretty trump friendly. the group of voters who makeup

this batch. trump needs to get 59%. they're going to keep counting into tomorrow. all said and done, get about 59% of what is left to be counted in arizona to erase joe biden's lead and potentially win it himself. and so far in this group of votes, trump is getting 59%. so he's right on the line, and it just looks like this has the potential to be a real nail-biter when it comes down to it. and the next big signal we're going to get in arizona is right here, phoenix, maricopa county. this is the biggie in arizona by far. they say at 9:00 a.m. their time which will be 11:00 a.m. eastern time, they're going to release another gigantic batch of votes tomorrow. that's the question. when those come out, is trump,

is he at or near or above 59%. okay, he still has a possible pathway there to carry the state. or this is an argument democrats are making. democrats are saying, well, now -- this is getting really technical. they're saying within this very specific type of ballot being counted, there is a technical reason for that. >> i love you love the technical reason and you're willing to dive into it at 2:18 in the morning. >> it's all about technical. >> let me ask you, steve, are we expecting numbers from arizona and georgia like we are from philadelphia? are they still going? >> we just got one from coconino county. >> i love that name. >> imogene coca was on vacation. they had her on the top of the car in flagstaff, arizona. >> 2:18.

>> steve, hold on a second. we have a couple reporters who are standing in the cold that we have got to get to. they've been patiently waiting for us. we're going to come back to you. let's go to nbc's rehema ellis in philadelphia. rehema, first of all, i'm sorry for making you wait. philadelphia, though -- >> reporter: i love all of this stuff from steve. >> -- is the place to be, it is the place that could put joe biden over the top. tell us what it's like. >> well, for a long time people have been saying the keystone state could be key in this election, and it looks like it's sizing up to be that. one of the things that's happening behind me right now is the philadelphia election commission had said that poll workers in this building have been working like crazy. that's a quote. they're on three eight-hour shifts nonstop. they are going at it in terms of

counting this ballot. there was a little pause on thursday after the trump administration or the trump campaign had gotten a favorable ruling from the lower court that aid pole workers -- pole watchers, i'm sorry, would have to be allowed in, but at a closer distance to watch. 6 feet socially distanced also wearing masks because of covid. when that came down, the elections officials here in philadelphia wanted to take a close look at the court order. so they paused a little for the counting on thursday morning. after they reviewed it, they resumed the counting. that was the only pause there has been in california and at this pennsylvania convention center. we started counting ballots, seems like so long ago now, back on tuesday. but one of the things i think we should remember just a little

bit of history. when donald trump won pennsylvania four years ago, it meant that hillary clinton had lost the state by less than 1% or 44,000 votes. the democrats decided that they wanted to make certain that didn't happen again because it had been a long time before a republican had ever won this state in a a presidential election. i think it was 32 years ago in 1988 that a republican won. democrats mounted a big push hire to make certain they got out the vote. even in the face of coronavirus where people are feeling a little bit uncomfortable about going to the polls, they had mail-in ballots. it's the first time here in this state that mail-in ballots have been used extensively in a president sh presidential election. no mail-in ballots. you had to give an excuse. you were out of town, you were

sick. that didn't happen. anyone who wanted one could get one. they sent out 30,000 ballots, they got a lot of them back and they're counting furiously now. the secretary of state expected they would hear something and know something about where these ballots and who had won all of these ballots. before too long, she thought it was going to be the end of thursday. now it's thursday. they said it was 10,000 per hour, maybe it's 8,000 per hour, people are a little tired, but they are working hard at it. katie, ayman? >> we now know what's happening in the poll counting with the trend emerged that steve laid out for us and the hours ahead. what is the atmosphere like on the streets of philadelphia 1234 what is happening on the

convention center? are we seeing anything different in terms of the anticipation coming out of the city given what we're hearing coming out of the white house and what the president is saying about the election, what he has said about the city of philadelphia and what is clearly now emerging as a trend with this vote counting? >> well, at this hour at 2:00 in the morning there is not a whole lot of activity of anybody except folks like me. but earlier in the day on thursday, there was a contingent of trump supporters who came to this building and who were shouting things, saying to the effect that, it's not fair. the counting is not going the way it should be. and even corey lewandowski and pam bondi, you remember that name, trump's campaign manager in 2016, he was here saying they were not treating the trump voters fairly. even after they had won that decision by the lower court, which allowed for a closer

distancing, if you will of poll watchers in here. they were still saying things were not fair. and there's no question in pennsylvania and across the country, the trump team has been mounting a very aggressive campaign to intervene in the counting. but this state is saying, you're not going to do that. we're going to count every single ballot no matter who comes out the winner or the loser. they're not taking sides. they're taking a position of they're going to count everything. the activity we've seen from time to time, a lot of police cars, officers on bicycles. so there has been some motion and anticipation during the day. i suspect we might see more of that when the sun comes up later today. >> rehema ellis live for us in philadelphia. rehema, thank you. before we go to arizona and vaughn hillyard, rehema was talking about trump supporters, you know this better than

anyone. this is a man whose followers follow his words. >> absolutely. >> when he stands up there at the white house when he talks about votes being stolen across the country, the end result is you're going to see voters show up to poll centers. >> this is what makes people in law enforcement on the national level and federal level, i went to a trump rally a couple months ago in pennsylvania right outside of scranton, and i talked to the crowd, pretty small crowd, still in the middle of the pandemic and he was not having as big of rallies. maybe 150, 200 people outside. i went and talked to dozens of people and i asked them, do you think donald trump can lose this election? and they said, no, there's no way. what if he does lose? there's no way he can lose. what if he does? it's because of mail fraud. they repeat word for word what he says.

what makes law enforcement so nervous, i talked to a man in the crowd, if you think democracy has been stolen, what will you do? he said i'll do anything i need to do. what does that mean? anything i need to do. does that include violence? he said yes. and he's been talking to his friends about it. maybe that doesn't come to pass, and hopefully it dpuz noes not to pass and it is bluster, but it is the kind of thing that makes law enforcement nervous. it is the kind of thing they have been on edge for, and not just local officials, the fbi as well. they have been on edge as the president has increased his rhetoric and has claimed over and over again that the only way he can lose is if it's rigged. so what we saw earlier today or yesterday now when the president came out and said that the election is being stolen from him before this network very rightly cutaway because that is lies, that is dangerous. that is very dangerous. we have a system of democracy

that allows people to vote legally. and the president of the united states should not be undermining that and calling his supporters to do god knows what. >> all right. let's just head out really quickly to arizona. we have the lay of the land in philadelphia. vaughn hillyard is out in scottsdale for us, another battleground state.. give us an update on what's happening. we were talking with rehema, the trends that are emerging and the atmosphere there at this hour.

outside there because they're telling me they got reports of threats to their news room that is the scene of the maricopa county recorder's office i think that is important context to what the point you were just sayingk was. here in the state of arizona i was just at a press conference this afternoon with david bossy and kelly ward and i specifically asked them if there is any evidence that warrants concern that would lead to litigation at this time. and neither of them provided any evidence or any details or any allegations that would lead to litigation. there has been no lawsuit filed in the late of arizona. kelly ward the chairwoman made mention of one thing, and that was the placement in the room

where party designated observers have to stand inside the office. that was the one grievance. the governor of arizona, republican governor doug ducey said in a tweet we're following arizona election law to the letter defending the election process. but also the chairman of the maricopa county board of supervisors, clint hickman, who is republican and who is a trump supporter who was at a rally last week defending this election's process, so what you see outside is very separate from the reality of how the process inf arizona is working. apologies for the length of that firstie part. on the answer to the second question, i think steve set up what we're looking at. tomorrow is a big morning in arizona. as we're watching philadelphia. as we're watching georgia, tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. eastern, 9:00 a.m. local is when we're going tom. get the first batch of votes that's the key indicator that's going to tell us whatin the next 300,000 balls are going to look like. that's because these remaining

ballots are almost all ballots that were handll delivered on tuesday, election day. and the democrats, the biden campaign, tell me that they hope those numbers are not as favorable to donald trump as these last early ballots have been. steve pointed out that number, 59% marker, which is essential the share of support that he has drawn from the uncounted ballots over the course of the last 24 hours. the biden campaign is relying o that number being smaller in tomorrow morning's batch. we'll be able to see that pretty instantaneously. for arizona results, 11:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. >> von, thank you. if you're wondering if there's anyone upe at 2:18 in the morng watching tv, we do have one person that is watching. it ispe the president of the united states. even in thees middle of the nig, president trump trying to sow doubt on the results of the election as the votes continue to stack up in joe biden's favor. the president just tweeting out minutes ago -- minutes ago -- i

easily win the presidency of the united states with legal votes cast. the observers were not allowed in, anyway, shape, or form to do their job, and therefore votes accepted during this period must be determined to be illegal votes. u.s. supreme court should decide. let's bring in former president of the naacp -- >> before we do that. let's put d up that tweet. none of that is true. none of that is true. theth legal votes cast are stil being counted and he is starting to lose. that is not true. observers were not allowed in any shape or form to do their jobs, blah, blah, blah. there are election observers, bipartisan election observers in these elections offices watching the votes come in. that is completely not true. so, the president is tweeting about e it, yes, but what he is saying is not true. ben, sorry to interrupt the top of what you were going to say. but this is the president once again -- he did it already

today. he's beenit doing it for days n. he told us he was going to do this for months. this is a president casting doubt, under mining democracy. are you nervous about what this leadsou to? >> sure. we have to be very concerned. you see the president of the unite using his bully pulpit to attack our very institutions of our democracy, to encourage violence against the people of this country. we should be absolutely concerned. let me tell you what's also true. what's true is that he has no path, that he will lose. it's just a matter of time before it's called. but we've been watching these numbers for twoes days now, and they only head in one direction. we knew that this would happen. we knew that mail-in ballots would come in late, they would tend toou favor democrats. and what you've seen is really remarkable. i've got to say to my old friend, my friend of 30 years stacey abrams, that she is the

hero of georgia right now. it's really her will, the movement she's built for years in that state that has set up a very real possibility that he wins georgia too, biden wins georgia too. >> so, pat toomey, republican of pennsylvania said all the votes should be counted. adam kenzinger of illinois said this is getting crazy. this is before the president startingbe tweeting. there are a handful of republicans, mitt romney as well, who have come out and said this is just not okay. but it is only as of now a handful of republicans. and some of the biggest voices in the republican party that are currently leaders of the republican party are silent right now. is silence enough? is not backing up the president publicly enough or should they be coming out and saying that this is insane like adam kinzinger is?

>> martin luther king in his letter from a birmingham jail said his biggest issue was with the moderates who knew better skped nothi and said nothing. you've really got to frankly holdd go accountable any republ who is being quiet in the face of what donald trump is doing. donald trump's behavior now is most in alignment, frankly, with hostile foreign nations that want to -- whose operatives want to encourage people of this country to lose faith in their democracy. he has really ceased to be president of the united states. the point, when you are the presidenthe and you are encouraging violence against your ownco people, you are discouraging faith in your own government, you've really gone beyond the pail in a way that no official should tolerate. >> all right. i want to bring in -- ben, if

you can stay with me just a j moment, i want to bring in gianforte, election law analyst and director of studies. in part because a part of the tweet thate came out a short f minutes agot says -- and we'll put this back up on the screen -- votes accepted during this period must be determined to be illegal votes, u.s. supreme court should decide. john, first of all i want to get your reaction to this presidential tweet. as katies was saying, obviousl the information inin it is absolutely false. what he is saying is not correct. but morein importantly i want t ask you now about his declaration there that the u.s. supreme court shouldar decide. what do you make of that? >> yeah, i think the rhetoric doesn't match what is going on inma court or what might even g on. there are some legitimate issues. l they may not go the president's way. one they may be before the supreme court or other courts. those are issues that are down the line where we have

categories of w ballots, small challenges, thingss, that come later or still are under review. the big bulk of ballots that are still being reviewed are ones that have been put in for quite a long time. we're just getting to them. courts are showing no indication they're going to stop the s counting of s those.co again, if it ends up being close enough after those votes are counted, we can have all sorts of legal challenges. we mightof go to the supreme court. it might be decisive. but these ballots we're counting right now, we'll see what they end up with. but they are not things the courts are likely to stop and we're probably going to see those numbers come out in descent numbers shortly or early next morning. >> when the president says observers were not allowed in any way, shape or form to do their job and therefore voted accepted during this period should not -- or should be determined as illegal votes, does that even legally make sense. he's confusing two things. if i'm not correct here, he is

obfuscating the process by which votes are cast as illegal. that's obviously not what has happened here so far. issue of the observers being in the room to see how the votes are counted. just the observers being in the room, that would not negate how someone's ballot was cast, correct? >> well, the president's team has already been in court about this. there's been some back and forth as to whatth they need to have. that's a legitimate argument. they won that at least to an extent thachlt got a little bit more access. but courts aren't going to go back and say before that happened, we're going to throw out ballots that were not observedou in this way. they're absolutely within their rights to fight for observer rights. they want people with eyes on the ground looking at things, perhaps noting problems. but, again, ballots are being counted, they're not going to be thrown out. so, i think while legitimate small issue may be better for the process going forward to have a slightly better observer core there, it won't affect

ballots that have come in and ballots that are coming in are going to be still coming in and seen byco people but unlikely t be changed in any way. >> in confirmation, the president said one of the reasons why he wanted to confirm her soto quickly was because he wanted her in place post-election because he believed the supreme court could decide the election. it's now coming to pass that he wants the supreme court to zoid the election. he wants that to be put in front of the justices because he nominated them and put them in place. i know that's what he thinks. the likelihood of the supreme court taking up a case having to do with this election, what threshold needs to be passed for it to get to that high a level? >> well, there is a case out there with a particular set of ballots, and that could come into play if it's close enough. i thinkcl basically that's the point. if we get tok the point where donald trump is behind by 50,000

votes, all of these challenges really aren't going toes make u the difference. recounts aren't going to.go if we end up in a closer place, there's room for all sorts of litigation. they'll be on small issues, small piles of ballots. you remember florida. that's legitimate. but again i do not think we are going to see the course. there's no case that could be brought that's going to stop the counti counting going to change the numbers of tens of thousands of ballots. >> i just want to button up this conversation by asking you a broader question about the state of theon country and where we a at this moment because many are saying it is an inflection point. you havefl the president now lashing out with these false accusations. in some cases as we just saw there saying absolutely false statements about the valid toitf the votes being cast. when you see the way this election has played out and some have described it as a

referendum purely on the president, do you or are you at all concerned by the rhetoric coming out byto the president wh his supporters as we've heard from the correspondent that we're ahead for a few rough days if the president continues to push this narrative out there. >> i'm so pleased that there's been sod little violence to th point. and i'm hopeful that the people of the country frankly will stay calmer than the president. what we see coming out of the white house reminds most people in this country that the president has been just as erratic, just as irresponsible trying to steer us through this covid crisis. joe biden and kamala harris, this will be abi historic victo, but it will also represent frankly the return of competency to the white house, and we need it urgently for the safety of our people in so many ways. so far people of this country have held it together better

than the president,it and i thi that will continue to be the case. >> ben t gel lis, thanks so muc for joining us, former president of the naacp and john foyt yea and director of policy center. we're going to be talking a lot about the law and how to get the country back together. not so divided as the days go on, months, probably years. stay with us as night three of our special election coverage continues. when you switch to xfinity mobile,

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visit your local xfinity store today to ask, shop, discover the latest on xfinity mobile. it's our most dangerous addiction. so we took our worst vice, and turned it into the dna for a better system. we created bionic and put the word out with godaddy. what will you change? make the world you want. welcome back everyone. we want to cross over to steve at the big board. we're getting these numbers continuously throughout the hour, throughout the morning. as we were talking about georgia at the top of the hour, we do have an update from that state. >> how about this, donald trump

statewide lead in georgia is down to 665 votes. >> wowza. >> wow. >> that is as close as it gets. what's happened here again, we've been talking about this county all night. but clayton county, hugely democratic county right outside of atlanta. they've been sitting on the most votes out of pretty much any of these counties. what they've been doing is releasing these several hundred at a teem. we've just got another installment from clayton. trump's lead was about 1,200. now they've released another installment. down to 665. i think clayton is the only county with outstanding vote that is doing this throughout night. so, there are some other counties, gwinnett comes to mind that also have vote here to report out. i don't think we're going to hear from them tonight. i think clayton's got the show to themselves. if they do report out more just based on this last update, we

could be one clayton county update away from joe biden passing donald trump in the georgia vote count. so, we'll see. they've been doing these in different sizes. they do have a little bit more to come. and now -- >> when was the last update before this one? >> probably about 30 minutes ago. some of these counties, it seems they'll wait a few hours, they'll drop a bunch. clayton seems to prefer shorter increments, fewer votes at a time. >> you're from georgia. what do you think of all this? >> cobb county. it's interesting to see. it's become one of the more blue districts of that metropolitan area. when i was in high school, newt gingrich was the representative of the house. it gives you a sense of how solidly red this area was. as we've been seeing over the past couple of days, there's a

demographic shift. there's been a political shift. metro atlanta has spread out. we've seen more diversification. a lot of immigrants has moved to atlanta. that has changed cobb from a staunchly red strict to a solidly blue one both in the 2018 midterms and now in this presidential cycle. >> i read this great book who fa focused a lot on newt gingrich. >> you wouldn't be talking about the book i wrote a couple years ago. >> it is. can i just say it is a great book. i learned a ton about american elections and why we are in the place we are right now where both parties are at each others' throats and truth is under assault. so, buy steve kornacki's book. help him buy more khakis.

we'll check back in i amoment. let's go to mike. mike, i know the stage is lit up in wilmington, delaware. when do we expect to see joe biden? >> well, katie, there was a point -- what day is it now? i guess it's now friday. but there was a point on thursday where the biden team seemed to be clearly planning. joe biden won his first election for public office in 1970. he's been waiting 50 years to be president of the united states. what's one more night at this point. that was sort of the mentality as they saw the results coming in not quite as fast as they had hoped, not getting calls to project him over 270 electoral votes. at this point it's probably unlikely we'll see the former vice president take the stage behind me until i would say friday evening. they've got a lot of great

lighting, a lot of osound checks we've been hearing and maybe fireworks as well like we saw at the dnc, a similar scene here likely to play out if they are victorious. but of course that's not a given. we are very closely following all these vote counts, especially in arizona. it's interesting, been talking to vaughn hillyard as you were talking to him earlier about the situation out there. the biden team has been bullish about arizona from the beginning but that's a state the margin is narrowing a bit. this is something the biden team warned about earlier in the day. as some of the trump county friendly's came in and report additional counts we see that noor row. we're at the point where one point puts him over. this is a state his campaign was headquartered back when we had campaign had had quarters in the pre-pandemic era. and it's a state he campaigned more than anywhere throughout the general election campaign phase of the campaign. so, it would be really

appropriate for the son of scranton to see that be the one that tips him over the top. >> if you work in tv, never waste good lighting. >> never. mike medley live for us outside the biden headquarters in will mington, delaware. >> let's cross over to josh letterman, nbc news national political reporter. josh, talk to us a little bit about as we see this kind of play out, the very latest both on the politics front of it, the political campaign aspect, some of the folks you've been covering over the last couple of months like rick grinnell in nevada trying to cast doubt about a process in nevada as he was confronted without any evidence, without any basis, continue to spread this information that there was something nefarious going on with the way the count was going. >> there's a strategy of throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. we heard the president in a combative 17-minute appearance

in the briefing room where he did not take any questions but made all kind of false claims about the election being stolen from him. the president arguing that if only the legal votes were counted that he would win. the president also suggesting that the polls that were off in this election actually suppressed the vote because, in his words, it created the false impression that he wasn't doing well. the president also making a lot of statements that were at conflict with themselves. for example, the president stating that all of these remaining states where the outcome is unclear that they're controlled by democrats, of course that's not true in the state of georgia. the election apparatus is of course controlled by republicans. and the president also spent time touting the wins that republicans had elsewhere on the ballot, gaining seats in the house and very likely holding on to control of the senate without explaining how it is that the very same ballot that has the president at the top of the

ballot and other contests lowered down could be cheated or fraudulent to the top. as you mentioned, as the president was making those comments, his family members, his son on twitter, using really militaristic terms to describe the way republicans need to be responding right now and his campaign advisers like rick grenell and his lawyers fanning out across the country to try to launch all the lawsuits to undermine the integrity of the election in the states that could hand this thing over to joe biden. >> all right. josh letterman, josh action thank you as always. let's delve into all this with our panel of experts. nevada, megan mehserle, politics reporter, and pennsylvania national columnist, will bunch.

let me begin with tia if i can just for a moment. the situation in atlanta right now. as it goes hour by hour narrows down. how much of the vote do we know is outstand sng how much do we expect later tonight? what is the pace of these announcements coming out from election officials? >> so, you asked a hard question because as you guys have already noted, incrementally votes are being counted and released. so, earlier in the night there was a whole different number. we know that there are several thousand, i would say. you know, i'm going to keep it broad. because again clayton county is working through the night but counties like gwinnett have decided to wait and get back at it in the morning. so, it's very much a moving target in georgia. >> all right. georgia, we're still getting numbers in.

665 is the current number. and a lot of people are pointing out the fact that clayton county is the one that is currently reporting is fitting because of john lewis, who passed away earlier this year. john lewis' desire to see, you know, voter suppression done away with across the country, especially in georgia, a desire to see a democrat put back into office. certainly no fan of donald trump. so, that's fitting. i'm curious though, will, i want to go back to pennsylvania because that is the state that just alone could put joe biden over the top. what's different about pennsylvania this year than 2016? >> well, i think the big difference is just the enthusiasm and the turnout in suburban counties both outside of philadelphia and outside of pittsburgh to some extent. take montgomery county, for example. that's always been a huge

bellwether down tichlt it's an fluent suburban county just west of philadelphia. this year i believe in their close to final count joe biden had about 60,000 more votes than hillary clinton did four years ago. so, these are people who, you know, a big number of women voters. a lot of people were engaged in the suburbs in so-called resistance groups and political organizing, and i think we're seeing the fruits of that. i mean and they needed every one of those votes because donald trump obviously increased his votes in his areas like lancaster county and more rural areas of the state and places in central pennsylvania. you saw a surge of votes for donald trump, but it was basically subsumed by votes in the philadelphia suburbs. also i think we saw site improvement probably in turnout in philadelphia where the african-american vote is so critical. so, that's why you're seeing this split from a 44,000 vote

margin for trump in 2016. it's probably going to be close to the same for joe biden this time around. >> megan, if there's been a funny moment throughout auts, i'm sure you've seen the memes about nevada and its vote counting. we were laughing about this one earlier. >> let's just say there are a few memes out there on social media that take aim at nevada and it's slow counting process. you're on the ground there. give us the context of what exactly is happening. why has there been a slow trickle of information to come out from nevada compared to past election cycles? are people reading too much into why it's slow to come out of nevada? or is this par for the course for how things are generally done there? >> i think what's unusual about this cycle is the fact we have so much mail voting. nevada made the decision to send ballots to all active registered voters in the state. there's just a lot of mail ballots to get through and it

takes time to process all of those ballots. i know local officials and state officials here have been talking about we want to get this right. we're not going to rush it. we're going to take our time. if that means the results come out a little bit more slowly, they come out more slowly. i think it's also worth noting it's not like they're counting for a couple of hours and they're p is to stopping. they're continuously counting the ballots. you can watch the live feed online of them hard at work. it's just that we're only getting results once a day. they've made the decision to release results at 9:00 a.m. pacific every day. today we got 30,000 votes. tomorrow we're expecting to get at least 51,000 votes out of clarke county. but they start coming in batches and waves versus trickling in throughout the day. >> and it's created moments olevity on social media. let me ask you quickly if i can about georgia because we heard ben jealous evoke earlier stacey

abrams' name. you're on the ground there. talk to us about her efforts over the past two years and the way it has brought us to this point. >>, i consider stacey abrams efforts twofold. when she ran for governor in 2018, she built a statewide ground game. she touched each of georgia's 159 counties. so, that was important because she sent a message to democrats that they should and can compete statewide in georgia. and she came close but we know she didn't quite make it to victory. and then she spent the last two years building up organizations as far as protecting voter rights, of course voter access, voter registration. so, that of course is engaging more voters, new voters, younger voters, a diverse coalition of voters. so, those aspects together -- you know, she's receiving a lot of credit for helping get georgia in a posture where it

could flip. >> it's certainly someone getting a lot of credit and praise at this hour. thank you all very much for joining us. i know it is a late night, early morning for all of you. we appreciate your time and nowr and in three seconds it will be 3 a.m. in the east and midnight out west. you're watching msnbc's continuing coverage of the 2020 election. i'm katie tur. >> i'm he a men mohyeldin. biden is leading 253 electoral votes to trump's 214. we have been watching results trickle in from battleground states that are too close to call. in pennsylvania joe biden consistently making up ground shrinking that margin between him and president trump. pennsylvania is obviously a must-win for the president at this point. without its 20 electoral votes, president trump cannot reach