[ engines revving ] ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. and good day, i'm andrea mitchell in new york, continuing our breaking news coverage of a presidential election racing

toward a decision, we think. joe biden taking the lead now from president trump in pennsylvania this morning. and steadily adding to it throughout the day. after passing the president in georgia overnight, georgia is so close it likely will not be called for days or even weeks. and officials there say there will likely be a recount. if the pennsylvania lead holds up, as more votes are counted throughout the day, that state alone would give joe biden the 270 electoral votes he needs to make him the presumptive president-elect. in arizona's latest release of votes, the president is not gaining on biden at the rate necessary to eventually overtake him there according to nbc's calculations. the biden campaign believes both arizona and nevada, where biden's lead just doubled in the last hour, will end up being blue when all the votes are counted. nbc news' decision desk says nevada is too close to call but as a result of these latest numbers says that biden is now in the lead. nbc news has a projection in

arizona, a big boost for chuck schumer and senate democrats. former astro not mark kelly, husband of former democratic congresswoman gabby giffords, has defeated republican martha mcsally, flipping john mccain's senate seat. covering the campaign across the country, msnbc national political correspondent steve kornacki at the big board. steve, a lot of action in the last hour. but a slow, slow level of returns from pennsylvania which is the key to everything as far as joe biden is concerned. >> it really is, andrea. let's take a closer look there. a win here in pennsylvania for joe biden would make him president-elect. he leads, as you see, 8,867 votes. we had a long overnight where they were counting votes in philadelphia but they didn't release any until about 9:00 this morning. and they released a big batch and it put joe biden ahead. since then, a few other counties

have released a small number of votes, 1,500 here, 2,000 there, and it adds up at the moment to an 8,867-vote lead for joe biden. oh, it just jumped up by a thousand. i'll ask my producer what county just came in. okay, this has been a recurring story line. bucks county. this is outside philadelphia, very competitive county here politically but the mail ballots here have been overwhelmingly favoring joe biden. we've been seeing this in county after county across pennsylvania. bucks came into this morning with about 10,000 mail ballots to vote. i believe this is the third update we've gotten from bucks this morning. this is what continues to happen, they report out a few thousand votes, biden gains votes because he's winning the mail ballots so big there. you see what that just did, a minute ago i'm sitting here telling you about 8,800, now it's 9,746. that now is joe biden's

statewide lead in pennsylvania, getting close to 10,000 now. what i was about to say, though, before that was, there are still a significant number of uncounted mail ballots throughout pennsylvania. there remain over 20,000 in philadelphia. i mentioned philadelphia this morning had a huge batch of those mail-ins that put biden into the lead statewide in philadelphia. the mail ballots are breaking for joe biden by about a nine to one margin. and again, more than 20,000 uncounted in philadelphia still. another big load of them is out in allegheny county where pittsburgh is. there are 35,000 uncounted absentee or mail-in ballots. lehigh county where allentown is, about 10,000 uncounted there. the pile of uncounted in bucks is probably getting pretty low now because we've had a couple of updates from there. and there are many, many of these smaller counties sort of in the interior there of

pennsylvania, we're getting reports from them throughout the morning, we expect to in the afternoon. the bottom line is the overall trajectory of the reporting here from these various counties across the state, biden is winning the mail ballot overwhelmingly in pennsylvania. he's getting about 75% of all mail ballots counted in pennsylvania. and it's been a pretty steady rate for him. what you just saw a second ago in bucks is a pretty good example, we've been seeing it now for a day and a half. if you've been tracking this, that's how what looked like a giant imposing lead for president trump a day or so ago has completely eroded and how biden's got in front. if that pace holds, if it just continues to go like that between allegheny, philadelphia, allentown, lehigh, all the rest of these counties here, biden will build that lead substantially, if it continues at this pace. there would need to be an unexpected twist here for this not to become a stabubstantial

biden lead, andrea. as you say, if it becomes a substantial biden lead and a win for him in pennsylvania, it's a win for him of the presidency. >> a couple of things that come to mind, because when we were checking earlier, biden is really overperforming hillary clinton in those philly suburbs by a big margin. >> yes. >> also in northeast pennsylvania, pittsburgh, and erie county. but underperforming hillary clinton in the city of philadelphia, at least as of a couple of hours ago. the other thing i was wondering about is, the ballots in allegheny county which were misprinted and had to be reprinted and are being held aside, those can't even be counted until 5:00 tonight. >> right. although we are told, i believe, that there's 35,000 of them, i think there is a slice of them that numbers about 7,000, about 7,500, something in that ballpark, that they can process before 5:00. the bulk of them they can't do before 5:00. i think there is a small slice

that they can and that they're working on now, which raises the possibility of maybe we'll get a partial readout on allegheny county this afternoon. >> now, i was looking at what you said earlier about nevada, just about a half hour ago, 45 minutes ago, and vaughn hillyard as well, on the nevada returns. and in nevada, basically donald trump is getting some more votes, but his pace is slowing down. it's about 53% of what he needs, he needs 59% in order to overcome what joe biden has elsewhere; is that correct? >> yes. and arizona is where that is the dynamic. >> arizona, i'm sorry. >> here it's trump who is playing catch-up here, and biden is sitting on the lead. trump is trying to erode the statewide lead that biden had. and basically there's just a group of ballots, a group of

uncounted ballots, all these counties, they kind of do them in bunches in arizona. so it's this last group of votes. and all of the counties kind of moved to begin counting them in the last day or two. and that last group of votes, it numbers in the hundreds of thousands. trump needed to be hitting basically 59% or more, be getting 59% or more of all those ballots. if he maintained that pace, he would be right on pace to overtake biden and potentially win the state. and he had been. yesterday, last night, he had been on that 59% pace, raising the possibility that trump would come back and win arizona. but we go gdid get a release in last hour or two from maricopa county, that's a biggie, phoenix metro area, biggest in the state by far. the 60,000 votes, instead of maintaining that pace, that 59% pace that he needed, trump slipped down to 53%. and that's not a trivial difference between those two,

because now it means there are fewer ballots in this pool of uncounted ballots. and the remaining ballots that are there, now trump he's got to win by an even higher margin. so suddenly trump is at a real disadvantage here, a real pronounced disadvantage in arizona whereas before we saw these numbers, it looked like, hey, he might get there. >> and nevada? >> in nevada, we got some votes from clark county mainly, although some other places as well, within the last hour. but clark county, we say maricopa is the mother lode in arizona. that's even more true for clark when it comes to nevada. this is almost three-quarters of the state in this las vegas area, this one county right here. so what happened was we came into the day, and biden's lead was sitting just above 10,000 statewide in nevada. then we got a big release of about 30,000 votes from clark county. a lot of these votes in clark county are mail-in ballots. the combination there for biden, clark county, a democratic area

to begin with, mail-in ballots, which he seems to be winning at about a two to one clip in nevada, in clark county, i should say, moved him ahead. it basically doubled his statewide lead, got it over 20,000. we've had a few other votes come in from rural counties around the state, but by far, still, the vast majority of votes left to come in nevada are from clark county and a lot of those are the mail-in ballots i'm describing. as a result of this release we got from clark county within the last hour or so, our decision desk now says that joe biden is leading in nevada. that was a change of characterization from just too close to call to saying that joe biden is now leading in nevada because those ballots were such good news for him. you can imagine if that pace that i'm describing continues as more of these clark county ballots come in, i imagine it would look even better for him

than biden leading. >> that's a lot. steve kornacki, thank you so much, we'll be checking back with you throughout the hour. i know this is all moving very quickly, to keep everything straight for everyone involved. msnbc senior national correspondent chris jansing is in pennsylvania, the capital city, as counting continues but at a slow pace. >> reporter: slower than anticipated. i just asked steve kornacki, who stayed up all night after democratic leaders told me they expected joe biden's number of votes to surpass that of the president's around 5:00 in the morning, it of course didn't happen until 9:00, but there's also a lot of anticipation here, because in about, what, 20 minutes or so, we're going to hear a press conference from the folks in philadelphia, both city officials and electeds, who are going to, we think, be talking about where it stands now, how long it might take. because i will tell you that while the people i've been

talking to have been spot on for more than 24 hours, when they said all the votes that are coming in, vote by mail, no matter what county they're coming from, are going to favor joe biden, they have adjusted what they think the timeline might be. we also heard this morning from a republican election commissioner who acknowledged that there was about a two-hour delay yesterday because of some of the legal machinations in philadelphia. and that is by far the largest number of votes that still have to come in. the other thing they're talking about are these legal challenges. and you saw it, of course, andrea, in the statement that the president put out. he said here in pennsylvania, they're going to be sure that the legal observers who were denied meaningful access, that they get redress. let me say there's a lot of lawyers who are coming in here. no one i've talked to on the democratic side believe any of these lawsuits will change in any way the outcome. but it's something they have to continue to look at as we wait to hear from elections officials

in philadelphia, andrea. >> and chris, as far as nbc is concerned, we need to see at least a 35,000-vote margin before we're going to come even close to that 99.5% magic number of perfection where they would basically decide that there is no way that it could go the other way and that would be the first time that you would hear from nbc news on declaring the state. thank you very much. >> reporter: and that's the exact number of votes still outstanding in allegheny, andrea. >> there you go. chris jansing, thank you so much. joining us now from las vegas, msnbc's jacob soboroff and john ralston, editor of "the nevada independent" and the guru of all things politics in nevada. jacob, first to you, what are you looking at right now? >> reporter: well, andrea, what i'm looking at is the same thing that steve kornacki was just talking about, which is that new release of about 30,000 ballots, and why i find that so interesting is we were told yesterday we were going to get

50,000 new ballots from here in clark county. so if ultimately they do deliver on that promise that was made by the local registrar here, joe gloria, that lead by joe biden, if the trend continues, could increase, i think, substantially. and that's partially because there's the mail-in ballots, but there are other ballots yet to be counted too. as a matter of fact, these folks right here, i think you can see them behind me, that are in line to go inside the building right now, are dropping off their provisional ballots. they didn't even have their identification at the time that they voted. so there's actually quite a line, and a line yesterday as well, of people that showed up here in order to bring in ballots that had also not yet been counted. i think scott kelly can give you a shot of that. there you go. these folks here, believe it or not, while it feels like election day is over, the actual process is not by a long shot. so not only are we expecting more ballots to be dropped today here in clark county.

there will be subsequent ballots after that, because there's still around 100,000 outstanding. and then there are the provisional ballots as well. so just to repeat one more time, if that trend continues, the lead that joe biden has will continue to grow, if that trend continues here. >> jacob soboroff. and john ralston, how many votes are outstanding and how much more do you think -- how much longer do you think it's going to take? >> well, unfortunately it's probably going to take a little bit longer, especially because mail is still coming in, andrea. there are more than 100,000 ballots still left in clark county. and listen, i understand the great kornacki being conservative and i understand jacob of course being conservative as well. but this trend is not going to change. almost all of the votes are left in clark county. biden's lead is going to keep growing here. i think we're going to get another update from clark this afternoon. and it's just going to grow.

there is almost no chance that biden's lead is going to do anything but grow from here, andrea. there's just no path, as i said yesterday, for trump to win the state. it's over here. >> and of course you wouhe woul both nevada and arizona, especially if he doesn't get pennsylvania, he needs to win georgia, north carolina, arizona. right now arizona is also too close to call, obviously because it is as tight as it is right now but not going in his direction, we can at least say, we just heard that. what is happening in the rest of the state? did you say that most of these votes are in clark county, the outstanding votes, are there scattered votes from red parts of nevada? >> there are scattered votes from red parts of nevada coming in, but people need to have a sense of proportionality. the rural counties are coming in and you see trump gaining by a

couple of hundred votes or even in one county it's like three votes to one, literally. and so those are not going to offset the tens of thousands of ballots coming in from clark county. there also was a small update from washoe county, which is reno, where biden is also ahead. he gained a little bit there as well. there just are not enough votes left out there in red parts of nevada where trump is doing well, to cut into biden's lead. quite the contrary, he's going to keep adding to that lead in clark county unless something really strange is going on, andrea, because he has been winning those mail ballots in clark county by almost two to one throughout this period, the democrats have. and that is reflected in the actual vote totals. the one that was done yesterday in clark and the one that just came out a little bit ago, andrea, it was two to one joe biden. that's not going to reverse. and even if trump were to start making gains in clark, i don't

think that's going to happen, the lead statewide is now 20,000 votes. he's just not going to be able to make up that kind of deficit in nevada. >> john ralston, thank you so much. jacob soboroff in nevada. and nbc political reporter vaughn hillyard is in scottsdale with the latest on the arizona vote count. fascinating numbers there. you can take us through it again. but it does look as though it would be very difficult for joe biden to not take the state right now if this trend continues, and that was a big "if." >> reporter: yeah, exactly, andrea. steve of course nailed the number there, that 59% number that donald trump was essentially going to have to maintain among the vote share, to maintain pace to catch or eclipse joe biden. but now what you're looking at is that number here from this batch of about 62,000 votes in maricopa county, that was 53 percentage points. what is outstanding? there are still about 140,000 outstanding ballots in maricopa county. and if you take into account, we

expect that number for those results to be right around 53%, because we're dealing with a very similar batch of type of votes. these are mail ballots that folks hand-delivered on election day. so if you keep that number at 53%, then what about the other outstanding ballots outside of maricopa county? there's about 70,000 of those. and a great number of those are in the likes of pima county, pinal county. of those 70,000, some rough math, donald trump would have to win about 75% of those 70,000 non-maricopa-county ballots. can he do that? look at yesterday. pima and pinal county. pima, a more democratic county, went 53% for trump. pinal county, 58%. again, that's below that 75% he needed to do. if in fact we're going to get our next batch at 9:00 p.m. eastern tonight, if in fact that batch is at 53% mark yet again, essentially that sets up the math that is just extremely difficult for donald trump to overcome at this point.

>> vaughn hillyard against a beautiful camelback mountain backdrop in scottsdale, arizona. thank you, vaughn. joining me now, nbc's white house correspondent and co-host of "weekend today," kristen welker, and another co-host of "weekend today," peter alexander at the white house. kristen, it's taking a while. when do we expect to hear from the candidate himself? >> andrea, i am told that if we hear from former vice president joe biden, it will not be until prime time. so that is what we can anticipate. just to take you inside what is happening with the vice president and with his campaign, we are told that he is watching these returns along with everyone else patiently, clearly feeling quite confident about the returns that he is seeing. but not wanting to get ahead of the vote count, not wanting to get ahead of this race until it is officially called. if and when that might happen.

but inside his campaign, andrea, there's more of a sense of ju jubilance, on the morning call of the campaign there was a sense of, we did this. there is a sense that they are really moving forward when you look at the vote counts in these critical states, pennsylvania, arizona. you and i, working from source, andrea, talking to campaign officials, this is what they anticipated happening. they've been quite bullish as it relates to these races in these critical battleground states. so they are making the point that this is what they had anticipated happening, albeit it is happening quite slowly. now, in terms of the messaging that is officially coming from the biden campaign at this hour, they are pretty defiant, releasing a very firm statement in response to some of the recent comments by president trump who has of course tried to raise allegations, unfounded allegations of fraud.

let me read you this from andrew bates, it says, quote, as we said on july 19, the american people will decide this election and the united states government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the white house. so that's the messaging from andrew bates. i just spoke to someone who is close to former president obama who said he is watching all of this quite closely well. i'm going to read this. former president obama believes in the electoral process and in the end joe will be victorious. i'm also told that obama really enjoyed being on the campaign trail for joe, his former vice president. a little bit of color here, andrea. i'm standing outside of the convention center where joe biden spoke on tuesday into wednesday, of course, after election day, the official election day, the first election day. and there have been signs of life here. they've been doing mic checks. they've been testing the lights. they've been making sure that everything is set on the stage. and in the last hour or so, andrea, more cars have driven

up. so of course we know that the signature drive-in rallies have been one of the sort of hallmarks of the biden campaign. and so now there are more cars here. and we get the sense that they are preparing for a potential speech a little bit later on this evening if in fact that does happen, andrea. >> i mean, kristen, when you think about it, he first started running for the white house in 1988. just think of that trajectory. kristen welker, we'll be hanging on every word from you coming up. and peter alexander, what is the white house saying and how do they explain the president's defiance? we can understand it, it's part of the personality, but the false allegations last night coming from the white house podium were really jaw-dropping. >> reporter: un-democratic is a good way to describe it. the president of the united states standing behind the presidential seal there in front of an american audience, effectively casting doubt on the integrity of the election where votes are being counted as we

speak. you ask about the mood in the biden campaign, the mood among those close to the president and in his campaign world i think you could describe, depending on who you speak to, is one of dejection and defiance, as you described it. publicly it is that defiance, where in a statement from the campaign earlier this morning they say this race isn't over. you've heard from those close to the president, including his on son, donald trump jr., saying they will effectively fight to the death, in his words, for transparency in this process, repeatedly complaining about what they say has been a lack of transparency in places like philadelphia, part of one of the lawsuits that they filed there, but notably, they were filing suit because they were complaining that observers were not able to watch the process. while we know observers are watching the process, they just wanted them to be a little closer, literally a matter of feet closer to witness what was taking place there. as for the president, nothing public on his schedule today to this point. we are hearing from him on twitter over the course of the day, making it clear that he is paying attention to the coverage of this day, watching fox

business, some of his conservative allies there making a series of points that he has been echoing including this idea that he thinks this could be resolved in some form at the supreme court. it's something that he previewed when he was celebrating the nomination and then confirmation of amy coney barrett a matter of weeks ago and echoed it again today. but as you talk about the president's claims of fraud and corruption in this election, again, an important reminder that there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud. in fact the campaign, despite repeated efforts by us to get evidence provided, has not offered any as well. and much like in the past, this seems to be a situation where the president makes a claim and then those allies and aides and others try to go catch up to it, try to find the evidence to back it up. to this point there is none of that. there have been some discussions internally about how they fight this and who they put in charge of this. frustration that there isn't a better field general, a james baker type who was of course in charge of the ballot recounts

for george w. bush in 2000. but there's no discussion, i'm told, by those in and around the white house, about any concession. the president conceding any ground, as one aide or i should say, adviser, described it, they said there is no talk of that right now. another person close to the white house, andrea, told us, they said apparently no one is willing to tell king lear the truth. andrea? >> peter alexander, thank you so much. and kristen welker, of course. in his first appearance more than 24 hours after election day, president trump unleashed a barrage of false claims of election fraud as his path to victory is narrowing. >> we were winning in all the key locations by a nlot, actually, then our numbers started getting whittled away in secret and they wouldn't allow legally permissible observers. >> joining me now, leon panetta,

secretary of defense in the obama administration and former white house chief of staff for president clinton. it's in that context that i wanted to ask you about, how does a white house chief of staff not work with the president of the united states to explain that you don't go out and make false charges, unsubstantiated charges, i should say, with no evidence of fraud, that undermines the very democracy here in america? >> it's difficult for me to understand why they were not able to hold the president back from making the accusations that he did, because it only -- it only undermines his presidency when he challenges the most important pillar in our democracy, which is the right of the american people to vote. this is a moment when frankly i think all of us need to be very

proud of the american people. we've had a record turnout. republicans and democrats voted in huge numbers. and now the vote count is being completed. this is a tribute to the fact that the american people still have tremendous trust in their ability to determine who will lead this country in the future. i think the president should have recognized that, be patient, allow the votes to be counted, and in the end, ultimately accept what that final vote count is all about. >> u.s. intelligence agencies were so concerned about russia and iran and misinformation, and now according to our reporting, ken dilanian from our team, the russian media are simply picking up what the president has said, which is based on a lot of false and misleading information, and broadcasting it back around the world and into the united states. so they are spreading basically the president's comments as

propaganda against us. >> and that's no surprise. the russians are basically interested in one thing, which is to undermine the united states of america in any way they can. they're our adversary, they're our enemy, and they're going to continue to try to spread false information about the united states. i think the key is that the american people, we know who we are. we know what we've been able to do for 240 years. and i think there's tremendous faith in our institutions and our ability to survive as a democracy. and that's what's important. look, america always makes the decisions. whether it's in politics or whether it's in sports, you fight like hell to try to be able to achieve a win. the president certainly fought

strongly, i think joe biden fought strongly. but in the end, it is the final scoreboard that determines who the winner is. and whether you're tom brady or whether you're tiger woods or whether you're the new york yankees, you've put up a good fight, but in the end it's that final scoreboard that determines who the winner is, and we accept that. the winner embraces victory. the loser accepts defeat and we move on. and i think that's going to happen with this vote. >> now, we are reporting, nbc news is reporting also that defense secretary mark esper has written a letter of resignation, not a pro forma letter often written during transitions but written a letter of resignation but at the same time is helping members of congress draft legislation that he knows the president does not want, to strip the names of confederate leaders from military bases. >> yeah, no, i give a lot of credit to secretary esper.

it's not easy to take the right steps particularly with this president. but he has taken the right steps here. we know what needs to be done. i regret that he is resigning, because, you know, ultimately he ought to be able to walk out like everybody else in this administration, with some degree of dignity. but i understand. and i'm also confident, very frankly, that the united states military is going to be fully committed to supporting the constitution and our process of voting, and that they're not going to be politicized at this difficult moment. so my hope is that our military, our law enforcement, and the american people are able to be patient in these next few hours

and ultimately accept what the final vote count will show. >> leon panetta, thank you so much. it's very good to see you. with just over 4,000 votes left to be counted, joe biden has taken a narrow lead in georgia. the state is still too close to call with the margin so small. we are in recount territory in georgia. let's go to nbc news correspondent blayne alexander in atlanta. blayne, what are you watching for as these votes keep coming in? >> reporter: i think the biggest thing, andrea, is now that we know, according to the secretary of state, that we will certainly see a recount here in the state of georgia, that just extends exponentially the timeline for when we will see final numbers here in the state of georgia. let me just walk you through what this is going to look like. yes, we know there are some 4,000 plus votes that still need to be counted. so it's almost kind of unbelievable that we are already talking about a recount when the first count hasn't even been completed. but just to walk you through what this looks like, we're talking about november 20 or so. that is the deadline for the state to certify the election.

of course they can always do so before then. but once the election results are certified, that's when we would see the recount would begin, a process that would take a week or so from beginning to end. if you pull up a calendar in your mind's eye, we think about the 20th, around there, we're talking about sometime after thinking abo thanksgiving before we know the final results in georgia. >> atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms joins us from atlanta. mayor, thank you very much for being with us today. what are you seeing as you look at the voting turnout, when you take a look around the areas around atlanta and around the state, what do you expect to happen? >> thank you for having me. i expect that the lead that joe biden has will continue. we know that there's still some military ballots to be counted, traditionally they vote heavily for the republican party. but this has been an interesting year, to say the least, with donald trump and his dynamic

with the military. so i expect that this lead will continue. it's going to be tight. we're used to tight races in our state. i had one myself as mayor. but i'm just so excited and so proud to see that georgia has gone blue. >> of course the question is going to be a recount, and you already have the possibility of recounts, we know one and possibly the second race as well in the senate race. what is the likelihood, given a lot of ticket-splitting elsewhere, that people may want to see, if joe biden is elected president, may want to see a republican senate as a counterweight and it may help the republicans in those two recounts, if both races are in recount? >> i'm optimistic. we have two very strong candidates with jon ossoff and raphael warnock. people have seen the power of their vote across the state. we had a record turnout across the state. people just simply have to turn back out and vote.

and this year, especially in georgia, we lost john lewis and dr. c.t. vivian and jacob lowery, three icons in this country and in this state who spoke about the ability for us to use our votes as our voice. and that's what we've seen across the state. i'm confident that if we take the same momentum into january, that we can also take two senate seats, because we know without the senate it's going to be very difficult for joe biden to do all that he needs to do to get this country on the path that it needs to be on. >> stacey abrams had a major impact, do you think, on the voter registration and the turnout? >> stacey, i think a combination of groups. we have automatic voter registration in this state which ironically we can attribute to governor nathan deal, our former governor, where when you show up

to get a triefdriver's license renew a driver's license, you're automatically registered to vote in the state. 800,000 voters have come onto the voter rolls due to that. so it's been a combination of efforts. we've had people on the ground from volunteers to civic organizations. but i think at the end of the day, all of the credit for this win will go to joe biden and the biden team. they believed in georgia. and they sent people to georgia, they sent president barack obama, kamala harris, they sent joe biden himself came to georgia because they believed this state could go blue. it's a conversation we've had for the last year or so. and we watched it happen. and this is an historic moment for our state. but i think at the end of the day, joe biden deserves the credit for this. >> mayor keisha lance bottoms, an early supporter of joe biden. thank you very much. thanks for being with us. you're watching msnbc's

breaking news coverage of the presidential election. this is "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ it's a new dawn... if you've been taking copd sitting down, it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing,

chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. hello is friendly... hello is open... it's welcoming... everything we want to be when helping people find a medicare plan. so if you're looking for yours, say hello to hellomedicare... ...a one stop shop for medicare plans, ...including a range of unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans. plans that could give you $0 co-pays on all primary care, doctor visits, preventive dental care, and eye exams. with hellomedicare, you can learn, compare, even enroll - all in one place. no matter where you are in your search. give us a call. our licensed hellomedicare agents are here to help guide you to a plan that fits your needs. because we get it: finding the right medicare plan can be challenging.

plans can differ by price... or benefits. they can even differ by where you live. that's why we're here - to put it all together... ...and be your go-to place for all the latest information... ...laid out right in front of you, in a way that's easy to understand. it all starts with a few simple questions so we can get to know you better. questions like, "do you want to keep your doctor?" and "which benefits are important to you?" then, we'll match you with plans from the top names in medicare, including a range of unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans. ...for a complete picture of your best options. next, we'll help you compare benefits and costs. and when you feel good about your selection... we'll sign you up. [done.and.done.] remember, the annual enrollment period is here... ...and it ends on december 7th. so whether you're looking to save money, or find better coverage... ...let's do this. let's go find your medicare plan.

call us today and speak with one of our helpful licensed hellomedicare agents. hellomedicare. say hello to an easier way to do medicare. hellomedicare. ♪ ♪ since pioneering the suv in 1935,

the chevy suburban has carried many things. nothing more important than family. introducing the most versatile and advanced chevy suburban and tahoe ever. and we have breaking funews the mayor of philadelphia, jim kinney, is speaking. let's listen. >> they are all too numerous to name, please know you have my thanks and the thanks of the people of this city. and most of all i thank the people of philadelphia. earlier this week, commissioner dealy and i sent out an open letter to voters urging patience and calm on election day and the days that followed. you have shown it in spades. we ask that you stay calm and stay above the fray. we did exactly that. what we've seen on the streets outside this convention center was not anger or contention but

music, dancing, and celebration. as we predicted, the voters and residents of philadelphia ensured that our city shined as an example of how to run an election correctly. so in the days ahead, please remember. this is not about a victory for a single candidate or a single political party. this is truly a victory for our democracy. that may sound cliche, but today it's oh, so true. the votes will continue to be counted until every valid ballot, mail-in ballot, absentee ballot, and provisional ballot is counted. while some including the president continue to spew baseless claims of fraud for which his team has not produced one iota of evidence, what we have seen in philadelphia is democracy pure and simple. our founding fathers who conceived this system just a 15-minute walk down the street, i know, would be proud. 233 years after the constitutional convention we stand at this convention center and proclaim the system still works. the people have spoken. and god willing, we will have a

peaceful transition of power in january. i would like to take this moment now to introduce commissioner elisa dealy, chair of the philadelphia city commission. >> and let's bring in donna edwards. you just heard that appeal from the mayor and the elections commissioners are speaking, we'll bring you any details that are pertinent to the vote count. former democratic congresswoman and contributing columnist to "the washington post" donna edwards. and kevin madden, former senior adviser to mitt romney. thanks for being with us. your reaction, donna edwards, the house, there were losses in house seats. nancy pelosi saying she will retain the speaker's gavel but there is criticism and internal fighting. some of the centrists, elissa slotkin, aoc, abigail spanberger, have different conclusions for why some of those incumbents lost their seats. >> well, look, i think as nancy pelosi says, the democratic

party and the democratic caucus is really a wide range, it's a very diverse caucus. so i'm not surprised by that. i do think there is a natural tension between those who are running in the strongest trump districts and others, people like myself, who had a solid blue district. at the same time, you know, we have to understand that in order to form the majority, it's going to take all of them. and i think that united behind a president biden, that people are going to come together on an agenda for the american people. and these differences that we like to talk about in the press and write about, really within the caucus, i think those things will be worked out. i've seen nancy pelosi operate in a caucus like that before, and i think that she's the right person to be leading the caucus in this really important environment. >> and kevin madden, i wanted to

bring to your attention mitt romney's statement. because a number of republicans, lindsey graham for instance, have been backing the president in his charges now, certainly after fierce attacks against republicans who don't fight fiercely for the president, by the president's sons and others in his orbit, but now you've got mitt romney with whom you worked, of course, saying the president is of course within his rights to request recounts, to call for investigation of alleged voting irregularities where evidence exists and to exhaust legal remedies. doing those things is consistent with our election process. he is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt, and stolen. doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world. we can see institutions that lie on the foundation of the republic and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions. that's the strongest statement yet from any member of the senate. >> right. but look, i think there is still a split within the republican party on how to react to the

president's remarks last night. i think -- and i think clearly the folks who are supportive of the president and believe that we need to fight -- that they need to fight this to the bitter end, they clearly outnumber those from the more traditional wing like mitt romney who believe that the process has to play out. so i think that tension right now inside the party, i think clearly the mitt romneys of the party are outnumbered. but i think you'll also see as the process starts to play out more from that traditional wing start to come out. we did see senator toomey from pennsylvania today make very similar remarks to what mitt romney said about letting the process play out and his belief that there is not widespread fraud, and if there is, it is incumbent on the president and his team and republicans to bring together evidence of that. and so far we haven't seen much of that. >> and toomey of course being from pennsylvania, was being asked precisely by savannah

guthrie about, you know, the allegations against pennsylvania, which seems to be what the president is focusing on, largely because pennsylvania is a deal-breaker for him. that's, you know, checkmate, if joe biden wins pennsylvania, he knows no matter how many of these other states. we now are expecting a philadelphia update later this afternoon, we don't know how conclusive it will be, but there will be another update. i want to ask you about kevin mccarthy, the house leader, who did not win the majority but certainly picked up some seats. this is what he had to say earlier. >> president trump won this election. so everyone who is listening, do not be quiet. do not -- do not be silent about this. we cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes. we need to unite together. >> he is certainly singing to the president's song book. >> yeah, i think that view by kevin mccarthy and others that have very strong voices and platforms inside the republican party, newt gingrich, for

example, as well, i think it's emblematic of the concerned world view that they have right now on the voting process. on this current voting process, as we see the mail votes being counted in places like pennsylvania. and i think the big risk for the party is that as this process starts to play out, and clearly the vote totals don't change, and we do see a move towards certification of the election results, the question is how long will that last past certification. do we see these tensions and animated forces inside the republican party continue to voice comments like that as we get closer to january 20, 2021? that is a real pressure point right now inside the party. and it's something that we have to watch very closely. >> and similarly, donna, there's certainly pressure points and schisms within the democratic caucus. >> i mean, i think what's in the house caucus, clearly, andrea,

there are differences. i actually think the party has been amazingly united behind joe biden and kamala harris. i think that that will continue as joe biden moves into the white house. i think that joe biden has run on one of the most progressive agendas of any president that we've ever seen. and i think that you're going to see a strong democratic majority in the house lining up behind that agenda to make sure that it gets through. and i think that for those of us who just want to finish this election, it's important to go through the process, even to go through the healing process that republicans are going to have to do, accept the decision of the american people, and then move on to governance. that would be the responsible thing for kevin mccarthy to do as leader. and we need to get to that point, because americans really deserve us all on a united page. i think joe biden is going to do that. and i look forward to putting this to an end. but let the process play out, finish counting the votes, get them certified, and then let's get to january.

>> and i also wanted to go back to the philadelphia news conference, donna. and kevin, thank you very much. because they're explaining the process that is now taking place. let's watch. >> i don't know, they've been segregated. >> okay. >> when will you start to count those? >> who is monitoring what's happening in there? >> everybody's monitoring. we have a live stream. anybody can watch. you've all been watching it. [ inaudible question ] >> there have been observers, you can see them in the line stream. >> how many segregated ballots do you have? how many segregated ballots do you have? >> what about the ballots that have issues? >> i can't answer two questions at the same time, it's not possible. >> how about this one? how many segregated ballots did issue. >> three questions now at the

same time. >> how many segregated ballots do you have? >>. [ inaudible question ] >> i think what the president needs to do is frankly put his big boy pants on. he needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost, and he needs to congratulate the winner just as jimmy carter did, just as george h.w. bush did and frankly as al gore did, and stop this and let us move forward as a country. that's my feeling, i doubt he'll listen to me, but that's it. >> mr. mayor, rudy giuliani was here on wednesday -- >> i know. >> i know you know. he said that funny things happen in philadelphia. he alleges the election's being stolen. what would you say to the mayor? >> he's wrong. he's wrong and he's baseless and he's rudy giuliani so he says whatever he wants. >> a little bit about the process that it takes to take the legitimacy of those ballots

with issue, and what's the time frame for you guys to finish counting? >> we're going to continue to count the ballots as quickly as we can without sacrificing accuracy, as we have from the beginning. that's where we're at. we're going to be -- we'll be done, you know, when we get done because we are -- we are -- we still have ballots that we are scanning today. there will be another update, as i said, and we'll continue to do as we have been doing, ensuring that the ballots that we have are counted as quickly and as k ratt accurately as possible. >> can you clarify what time you'll be updating us again? >> we should have a little update this afternoon. it might be going up now or s t shortly. >> and when will you start counting the segregated ballot? >> we are in the process right now of counting, just like we were yesterday and the day

before. it's the same process. we are counting ballots, and we will continue to do that as quickly as possible without s k sacrificing accuracy. >> just to clarify, you said you're counting all the ballots but how many segregated ballots do you have? >> we are going to continue -- i don't have that number. we're going to continue -- we are going to continue to count the ballots until they're all done, and in a way that people -- as we have been doing for these past few days. we're going to get it done as quickly as possible, and it will be accurate, and we'll come out -- if we have something to tell you, you'll know. we have -- you've been on our website. these numbers get updated. there is a live stream, everybody can watch. it's a very transparent process.

it's a process that has been working for the past few days. it's the same process. we're just going to keep counting. we're going to keep counting. we're going to keep -- we're going to keep counting. thank you. >> and the segregated -- >> importantly, the chair of the election commissioners, the city commissioners did not answer rehema ellis's voice whom i recognize asking how many of the segregated ballots are there, and have you been counting them, and those segregated ballots are the ballots that came in in that three-day period per the court decision that were under court order being separated. those ballots are being separated and will be looked at at the end of the process, but we don't know how many there are, and we don't know whether they have started counting them. steve kornacki, i think you have an update. >> we do. we got some more votes out of pennsylvania. we have been telling you that lehigh county where allentown is had about 10,000 votes yet to report. it just reported out about 6,850

of them, and joe biden netted 2,644 votes from there. that's his net gain, and so therefore, remember, he was just under 10,000. he's now over 10,000. biden's statewide lead goes to 12,390. again, the votes we are now talking about are coming from right here, lehigh county. i don't believe this is all of their mail ballots. they said they had about 10,000 coming in today that were uncounted, and again, they released just short of 7,000 here. they may even have some more to go. just again, i want to calculate the percentage here because we've been trying to -- so yeah, biden just won 69% of the mail ballots that were just reported out in lehigh county. those are definitely most of the mail ballots from lehigh county. there may still be a few more, but basically, yeah, the mail

vote in lehigh, biden just about got 70% of it, and again, i don't mean to be a broken record, but the overall vote in lehigh county is this 53 to 46, seven-point spread for biden. the mail ballot is a 38-point spread for biden. he is continuously winning the mail ballot by overwhelming margins, even in politically competitive counties, and he's continually adding to his statewide lead. these vote reports are coming in very slowly right now, as you can see. it's been a long time since an update from a county before this one, but when we do get the updates he continues to move up. >> so we see the same trend continuing. >> correct. >> steve kornacki. and joining me now is nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss along with

john for john for john for john fortier. the president -- you tweeted after the president's speech last night. remember this night, what will you remember about last night's speech and this moment we're in? >> i remember the president last night and i will for the rest of my life, the spectacle of one of the worst things a president can do, which is to lie to the american people, lie to the world, and exacerbate national differences that will always be there and to do it for his own selfish personal and political interests. that's about pretty near -- some things are worse, but pretty near the worst thing that a president of the united states can do. >> john, here's a list of all the places where the up trump campaign is going to the courts. cases in georgia and michigan have been dismissed because the court has found no evidence for these lawsuits. has anything changed within the last 24 hours to give any merit

to this litigation flurry of cases? >> i think the litigation doesn't live up to the rhetoric. the rhetoric is that we're going to stop all the counting. i think there are legitimate questions we can ask in very specific cases about who can come in and observe the ballots, one subset of ballots. that's not going to make a difference in a big win or a big margin for one candidate or the other. again, i think the specific cases may go forward. they may win. they may lose, but the idea that large stopping of the actual typical vote is going to be obstructed. >> many of us remember al gore's concession speech in 2000, one of the real moments of grace and strength really in the democratic process. he was on with us again last night, and again, talking about the foundation of our country, the principle that all just power is derived from the co consent of the governed and these elections give that

consent. >> that's exactly right. yes, and one of the things he said in that concession in 2000, a month from now 20 years ago was he said verbatim, for the sake of our democracy, i offer my concession. and you know, there were people urging him to fight on, and one thing that he said on nbc last night, which was so interesting, he said, you know, there's not much distance between a supreme court ruling and violence, and he did this to basically calm things down and took one for the team and to unify the country. that's what statesmanship is. i hope we see that from president trump as the weeks unfold. >> with those words we're going to have to leave it there, thank you both so much. that does it for this very special edition of "andrea m mitchell reports." ari melber is in for chuck todd and picks up our coverage right now.

good day, i'm ari melber anchoring msnbc special election coverage in a pivotal time. three days after election day here and the vote tally has now put joe biden on the cusp of winning the presidency. here's why, as the votes are tallied biden has taken the lead in several key states. he now leads in pennsylvania. that satate alone would put him over the 270 electoral votes for winning the presidency, and the remaining votes are coming from areas that have been building that lead, including this final batch of outstanding absentee ballots. officials in philadelphia telling the world that they have about 40,000 ballots left to count there. those updates will continue throughout today, and we'll bring them to you. moments ago, we also saw results come in from pennsylvania that pad biden's lead. to be clear, this is a lead. this is not a final resolution