speech, because it was so measured. he didn't take a victory lap. he gave us a chance to say, we can come together as a nation, and i will be responsible. and that was a really important point on such an important evening. >> we're going to leave it there. susan del percio, michael sar star hopkins, good to see both of you, even if it is 6:00 a.m. a saturday morning. thank you for watching this special edition of "msnbc live." i'm craig melvin. be sure to catch a special edition of "morning joe" as well. joe, mika, willie, they're getting up early on saturday as well. they'll start at 8:00 a.m. eastern here on msnbc. and, oh, looky, looky who else is up early on a saturday morning. i've never been so excited to see my friend and colleague, stephanie ruhle. >> i was going to say, how about a special edition of this girl, craig? craig, so great to see you. normally, if i was seeing you this late, i would hope that we would be up all night partying,

but alas, here we are, doing our jobs. all right, i'm going to get this thing started. craig's like, you know what, i'm done with you. hi, there. i am stephanie ruhle. it is saturday, november 7th. welcome to continuing special election coverage right here on msnbc. at this very moment, you and i are still awake, and you know what we're doing? we are waiting for the results from four key battleground states -- pennsylvania, georgia, nevada, and arizona. while you were hopefully sleeping, former vp joe biden expanded his lead very slightly in two of those states. in pennsylvania, the race is still too close to call, but biden is leading by nearly 29,000 votes. that lead has been expanding each time we get a new vote count from the state. georgia also still too close to call. this morning, joe biden has extended his lead there to 7,200 votes. out in nevada, where we are watching on a new batch of

results, this morning joe biden is up by a little more than 22,000 votes. and in arizona, biden leads by nearly 30,000 votes. that lead growing late last night. and as we wait -- and i know it is a word you are very tired of hearing -- vice president biden is also waiting, too, but he sounded very confident that he is on the brink of victory when he addressed the nation just before 11:00 p.m. last night. >> we don't have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers tell us it's clear, tell a clear and convincing story -- we're going to win this race. and what's becoming clear each hour is that record number of americans of all races, faiths, religions, chose change over more of the same. >> i would like to bring in msnbc's richard lui. he's at the big board. and nbc news senior political editor mark murray, for the latest on these key states.

richard, the first piece of good news, is that our friend, steve kornacki, is hopefully home sleeping for a couple of hours. >> exactly. >> or maybe under his desk. but i'm glad he is not standing at this moment. can you walk us through where we are? >> so true, yeah. steve kornacki working 25 hours a day, right, stephanie? so, we look at what is the latest. 253-214. looking at the paths to victory -- and this is why biden might be feeling confident, because he's been watching steve kornacki -- nine ways to win. trump only has three. and steph, the reason why that's important, as we look at the first two states, i just want to look at georgia and pennsylvania. i'll drill down on pennsylvania for a second. in all the paths to victory for donald trump, if he is to be re-elected, it has to go through those two states -- pennsylvania, georgia, the third way, pennsylvania and georgia. so, he must win those two states if he is going to become re-elected. now, let's drill down specifically to pennsylvania for you. we were just getting some of the data that you were telling us.

and when we look at pennsylvania specifically, we can see that we have roughly about 250,000 votes left. now, we did get -- you were talking about allegheny county. allegheny county, 22,000, roughly, that we expect. we did get data in from allegheny overnight. that was about 3,000 votes, stephanie. and that was leaning 21% for trump. you're not going to make up the difference in the state if you're down by 28,000 votes by only getting 21% of the vote. so, very quickly, just looking at the remaining vote for you here, steph. we have allegheny right now, big yellow bubble, means there's a lot of remaining vote there. philadelphia as well. in philadelphia county, for instance, let me just show you some of the numbers related to what's outstanding -- 27,000, almost, when we look at pennsylvania. so, there's a lot to look at right now. pennsylvania is very key. 35,000, by the way, in allegheny, was the number of expected mail-in ballots and

absentee ballots to be counted. we got about 17,000 after they started counting at 5:00 p.m. yesterday. again, leaning heavily towards biden, as these are heavily democratic areas. >> thank you, richard. mark, i need you to answer the question all of us are being asked by our family members. the results keep coming in and they're going in one direction. at what point does the decision desk call this race? >> once there is certainty, stephanie, that you end up having it at 99.5% certainty that joe biden is not going to lose his lead. and what's important to note is, as richard was just breaking down the remaining vote in pennsylvania, there are two batches of votes that we're watching for. number one are the mail-in ballots that have been leaning joe biden's way. we're going to get more today from allegheny county. we're going to get more from philadelphia as richard was pointing out. and across the state. and you know, it is very possible that when that mail-in ballot ends upcoming, joe biden's lead is going to expand

from about 28,000, you know, north of that, 35,000, 40,000, 45,000. so, that's one batch of the mail-in ballots that are definitely leaning in joe biden's direction. the other remaining variable are about 100,000 provisional ballots. and provisional ballots, important to point out, are ballots that are kind of set aside to make sure that people were eligible to vote. so, if you decided to say, hey, i ended up getting a mail-in ballot, i wanted to show up on election day, there was kind of worry to make sure that you didn't cast two ballots, your vote is handled in the provisional way. and i think there is still some uncertainty of how those provisional ballots are going to break, in blue and red areas in pennsylvania. so, the bottom line is, let's just go see how those mail-in ballots break, let's see how the provisional ballots break. i think we are going to get some clarity soon on all of this. i know people are impatient, but we have to actually wait for votes to come in, to make sure that we have certainty before we make a call. >> people who keep saying this thing is taking forever -- is it

taking forever, or is it we don't normally have this influx of mail-in ballots? right? the wait is making people think there's a problem. >> so, this is an unprecedented election that we're having, stephanie. and again, you know, with just the sheer number of mail-in ballots because of a pandemic that's occurring, because of a state that decided you cannot count election day -- you cannot count mail-in ballots until election day. there were a lot of states that actually have laws that can be counting these well in advance, a month before the election day. that's why florida was able to have such a fast count, why there was a much faster count in places like north carolina. but leaders in pennsylvania, pennsylvania republicans decided not to change their laws, and that's the situation that we are having. and you know, i go back to the 2000 florida recount between bush versus gore. that took a long time. i do think that the reason why

we are waiting has to do with the pandemic, by decisions from leaders, and just the way this is being conducted. but then again, stephanie, i do think that we have an idea of how this is actually going to break. we just need to wait for some more votes. >> all right, gentlemen, don't go too far. we're going to check in with you throughout the next two hours. and speaking of votes, i want to take you to those four key states. and you're in luck, because we have got reporters in all of them. i want to go first to my friend and colleague, maura barrett. she is in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. maura, you've been there for days. we got a few votes overnight, but the counting continues. what can we expect this morning? >> reporter: yeah, stephanie. here in allegheny county, one of those two major democratic strongholds that joe biden's campaign is really focusing on to see the rest of those mail-in ballots. big picture across pennsylvania, we are looking at 89,000 mail-in ballots left. big chunk here in allegheny county with a little more than

20,000. same picture over in philadelphia. so, allegheny will get started again on their counting here on 9:00 a.m. we're going to go into the warehouse where they're counting those ballots so we can get a better picture of what's going on. and what's great is that allegheny county has been very transparent, when to expect these results. so as they start processing and counting, their spokesperson has been really good about telling us when we can expect the next dump. so we'll definitely keep you posted on that, ideally sometime midday today. philadelphia has been a little bit more sporadic. but what i want to note about the provisional ballots, there are about 100,000 provisional ballots that we know of right now. not many counties have said how many they have. they have started counting those but not reported yet. we have reached out to the secretary of state to see which counties the bulk of the provisionals are coming from to see if that might give us a sense of what they might look like, but like mark said, we have to wait to see how the votes come in and how they fall. >> the supreme court made a ruling last night in

pennsylvania. what was it about, and does it change anything? >> reporter: yes, stephanie. remember how pennsylvania issued this ruling to allow for pandemic flexibility because the usps was slow and everything else that was going on. so, basically, any mail-in ballots that were sent on or before election day but arrived any time after election day until friday -- yesterday at 5:00 p.m. -- they said counties can count those. and so, the one ruling that was situated with that was that the counties, though, had to separate those ballots from everything else, just so they knew where they were, what was going on with them. supreme court justice alito ruled against republicans, what they wanted. republicans wanted these ballots to be separated and then not counted, but justice alito said that counties can continue to count these ballots. and realistically, though, stephanie, i want to point out, we haven't seen these majorly large numbers from this batch right now. here in allegheny, there's less than 1,000 of those separated ballots. so, republicans not happy, probably, that they're allowed to keep counting them, but

realistically, it probably wouldn't have and will not have too much of an impact going forward. >> maura, thank you. now let's head to vegas, where jake ward is standing by. jake, it's 3:10 a.m. where you are. unfortunately, you're not at the crabs table, you're here with me. give us the latest. >> reporter: stephanie, it is, you know, the quiet hour in every other state, but certainly in this city, that is not true. we can hear noise all around us from people just going about the normal vegas business, but of course, the normal vegas business of counting ballots is slow and steady. you know, the action everywhere else is fast, but it's nice and slow when it comes to counting ballots. at this point, joe biden with a nearly 2% lead over president trump, but there are still ballots left to count, about 30,000 mail-in ballots, about 90% of which are here, from clark county, las vegas, which joe biden's camp is hoping is going to be good news for them.

you know, stephanie, it is not allowed to, under u.s. law, to bet on politics, but we, just standing here in vegas, you know, seeing people doing the vegas thing, our minds turn toward it. we thought, oh, right, the british book makers are, in fact, casting bets on the u.s. election. and at this, just about a few hours ago, new statistics out of british bookmakers say that joe biden has about a 96% chance of winning. you know, i don't know what that does for you, but certainly, in sort of the vegas feel of things. meanwhile, there have been increasing protests each night in front of the election offices here. we've seen about three nights of them and increased law enforcement presence as well. this is an open carry state, and so, tensions are high there. but you know, in a few hours, we'll see the poll workers go back to counting ballots again. and then at around noon eastern, we should see the next turn of the wheel, the next data dump

that will give us some sense of where biden and trump stand in this state, stephanie. >> jake, thank you so much. now let's head to phoenix, arizona, where morgan chesky is standing by. morgan, we saw the third straight night of protests outside of the election office last night. can you help our audience understand, who are these protesters? what are they protesting? >> reporter: yeah, steph, good morning. these are folks that primarily live here in phoenix. and for the majority of those that i spoke to, they didn't anticipate this was going to be as close a race as it's turning out to be, and they're potentially having to face the fact that arizona could turn blue for the first time in decades. when i asked them individually, what brought you out here to stand for hours in this parking lot, just yards away from where they're counting these votes, they said they want to make sure this is a fair and a legal election. a lot of them echoing the president's talking points on twitter, saying that they feel like this is being stolen away

from them. when i posed the thought that, could this potentially be just exactly what happened in 2016, only on the other side, and it being a very narrow win, rather, for the democrats? it was 50/50. some said, well, so be it. if joe biden's going to be our president, then i'll have to face that fact when it becomes official. but others were a bit more adamant in having some sort of an uneasiness about the process, and that's primarily what brought them out here. hundreds of people gathered throughout the day. that crowd dwindled whenever they stopped counting around 10:00. and the number that everyone's looking forward to now is 9:00 this morning local time. that's when they're going to release about 70,000 more ballots here. these are early ballots that will have been counted. and right now, that gap between president trump and joe biden sits at about 29,800. that is what's separating the two. with this new dump of ballots, steph, president trump will have

to get at least 60%, around there, to potentially surpass that and overtake maricopa county, and in turn, potentially, arizona. steph? >> but more specifically, these protesters are trump supporters. what exactly are they protesting? >> reporter: they're protesting what they feel like is an unfair election, a process that they said they don't think there's enough transparency around. and i told several of them that when i walked inside, you can see the observers, a democrat, a republican, an independent, and then a city official watching over the process take place, and they still didn't feel like that was enough. there's still enough questions or seeds of doubt that are being sewn as to the process, particularly in a tight race like here in arizona, steph, that made many of them uncomfortable. and you know, they were quick to reference certain things that have already been disproven on social media. and so, right now, at this point

in time, they say that they, unless there's a recount or a court intervenes, that's going to be what legitimizes it to them, because at this point in time, due in large part to what the president's already said following the election, many of the people that gathered here today, supporterwise, have lost faith in the process. steph? >> lost faith in the process, saying there's no transparency. but to morgan's last point, there is transparency. you can go right inside and see it all happening. i want to turn to catie beck down in georgia, where joe biden expanded his lead overnight. catie, what do we know at this point? >> reporter: well, steph, we've been seeing those vote totals trickle in overnight. we got 5,000 new votes in from fulton county that put the two candidates about 7,000 votes apart. this is a razor-thin margin in a state the size of georgia, which is why the secretary of state yesterday indicated this will likely be going to a recount.

now, how many are still left. that is a good question at this point. we haven't had an official update from the secretary of state, but what we do know is, as of last night, there were 14,000 provisional ballots statewide, and then the military and overseas ballots could have been up to 8,400. could have been anywhere between zero and 8,400, due by 5:30 yesterday afternoon, in order to be eligible. so at this point, we are guessing that this number is probably under 10,000, and georgia is getting down to the end here in terms of vote counting. that is what we will probably be getting an update on later this morning about but these vote counts have been added all night, and we know that because we have been watching these slow trickle numbers come in, and all, of course, favoring biden so far in this state. again, a very narrow lead, but not many votes left to count here. >> that's a really good reminder, cati. people are sitting at home moaning and groaning that we're exhausted, we've been all all night watching these for days.

those vote counters have been up all night doing their jobs, making our democracy work. the process is working. thank you all so much. i appreciate it. we're going to leave it there. coming up next, we're going to get you reporting from inside both campaigns. our team on the phone with sources as we speak. and all of this is happening as white house chief of staff mark meadows tests positive for the coronavirus. and we cannot forget, this virus rages on. we are still in the middle of this pandemic, one of the reasons there's so many mail-in ballots. this morning, i need to give you the numbers. texas has eclipsed california for the most cases of covid-19 in the united states. more than 1 million total confirmed there. and don't forget, if anyone tells you it's morphed, people aren't getting so sick, that's wrong. people are still dying from this virus. yesterday, 1,185 americans lost their lives. that is the third straight day of more than 1,000 deaths.

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look, we both know tensions are high. we have to remember, we have to remain calm, patient. let the process work out as we count all the votes. >> we are still waiting on races to be called in a total of six states, but you heard there vice

president biden projected confidence that he will win the presidency once all the votes are counted, this as president trump's chief of staff, mark meadows, and a trump campaign aide, both tested positive for coronavirus. josh letterman is tracking the trump campaign in d.c. and ali vitali outside the most-watched parking lot in the world at this point, biden headquarters in wilmington, delaware. ali, a lot of people were expecting biden to win by this time when he was addressing the nation last night. obviously, that hasn't happened. but talk us through, what's their strategy today? >> reporter: steph, i think a lot of people were expecting the race to be called for biden before he hit the stage last night. that's why we had first heard he was going to speak in prime time. he spoke a little bit later last night. there was a lot of sliding of the timing there because the campaign wanted to play along and wait to see if the networks were going to call any of those gray states that are on our map right now. one of them, pennsylvania, would push him over.

a combination of some of the others would also push biden over 270. certainly, that's a call that they need before they're going to go out and say, declaratively, we have won this election and joe biden is going to say that he is the next president-elect of the united states. and that's why you saw him taking a very future-tense tone last night, just like we've heard him take over the course of the last few days, saying that he believes he is going to win the election, standing there with his running mate, kamala harris, and saying that the votes still need to be counted, but also, hitting on themes that we've heard him talk about before -- the need to unify, the need to stay above the partisan fray. all of that is critical to the calculus here. but as i'm talking to my sources, it's clear that there's some impatience here. i think you can sort of hear the collective democratic foot-tapping happening right now, because there's a lot of anxiety about when the networks are going to call these races, especially in a state like pennsylvania -- 20 electoral votes there. that would push biden over 270. it's a state that the campaign has consistently felt really good about.

people like senator bob casey talking with the campaign. the timeline just keeps shifting there, and that's why the framing went, i think, from imminent to what someone else said to me yesterday, which is, it's an eventuality. we're really stretching the meaning of all of these words on timing, because really, no one knows when that moment is going to come when our decision desk is going to see enough, when all of the votes are going to come in. i know we're waiting on things like provisional ballots. but if you just look at the way that vote-by-mail ballots have come in in pennsylvania, biden is winning those by over 70% statewide. so, even if you consider what trump would need to do to close that margin and flip it so he's in the lead there, that becomes more and more difficult as time goes by. so, the biden campaign, i feel like they're at this point now where they've run through the tape almost, but they're not yet getting on the winner's podium because they just can't yet. >> josh, let's go to team trump. they're dealing with two issues. let's talk campaign and coronavirus.

how's their mental and physical health? >> reporter: well, the white house aides that we're speaking to are frustrated and deflated, stephanie, as the president's path to victory in this race gets farther and farther away from him. now, we haven't heard from the president in person since thursday evening, when he appeared in the brady press briefing room of the white house and falsely and baselessly claimed that the election was being stolen from him. but a person close to the white house tells us that the president, like many of us, frankly, has been obsessively watching television, while his aides basically try to keep their head down, lay low. there's not a whole lot that they can actually do right now, other than watch these results continue to come in and these legal fights play out. but now some of the president's advisers privately conceding, stephanie, that those legal fights are unlikely to prevent joe biden from being the next president of the united states. >> and if the president is obsessively watching right now, good morning, mr. president. ali, i want to go back to joe

biden's speech last night, because it was interesting. he never actually brought up president trump. he focused on coronavirus. >> reporter: that's such a great point, and he should focus on coronavirus, because we're seeing spiking cases continue across the country. i know we're so focused on the election, and this is so important, but at the same time, the pandemic has not stopped. it doesn't care that there are no electoral college results yet. it's very much still ravaging the country. and that's why joe biden's remarks last night were really interesting for that reason. he instead focused on the issues. this is a race that has really hinged on president trump, a referendum on the job that he's done over the last four years. biden leaned into that on everything -- the idea of the battle for the soul of the nation was borne out of president trump, and for joe biden, out of that moment in charlottesville. and so, throughout this campaign, he has only sought to emphasize the contrast between himself and donald trump. but now, the referendum portion of this is over. voters have voted. we may not have the exact result

yet, but the election portion of this is over. and so, joe biden pushing beyond that. and you can even hear it in his remarks that he made last night. listen to how he said it. >> they've given us a mandate for action on covid, the economy, climate change, systemic racism. they made it clear, they want the country to come together, not continue to pull apart. the people spoke. >> reporter: so, biden's seeing a mandate, especially in the popular vote there, but all of those issues that he highlighted -- and i'm starting to see those both in some of my conversations with progressive sources as well as just on twitter and online, as some of these other progressive activists are starting to post. it seems like they think democrats are going to win the election. again, that's the eventuality piece of this. but there are a lot of policy battles on the horizon in washington, d.c. joe biden and democrats may have a mandate to govern, but the way that they govern on these issues, there are a lot of different opinions on how to handle things like health care,

climate change. those were not evidenced during the general election because they were all focused on beating president trump. but once they get to d.c., i think we're going to see a lot of democratic infighting on a lot of these key issues. >> and republicans in the senate are not going to make it easy for them to do it. josh, i want to go back to covid. mark meadows, the president's chief of staff, has tested positive. he's been an outspoken critic of wearing masks. do we know if there's a chance he spread it to others there? >> reporter: well, we do know that at least one trump campaign adviser has also tested positive. no way for us to know if that's directly connected to mark meadows' case, but a reminder, stephanie, that as all of us feel like time is, you know, frozen in place right now, coronavirus does not take a day off. we know that mark meadows was at the white house on tuesday evening. he was seen working the room in the east room without a mask, as you point out. he was also at campaign headquarters on wednesday along with the vice president and jared kushner, now bringing the

total number of people in and around the white house who have been known to have contracted coronavirus in the last few months to 35, stephanie. >> but i just want to go back to the image. that was from just a few nights ago. you can see mark meadows standing behind the president. it's a crowded room. he's one of the only people without a mask. a, do we know how he's doing? see, there he is, right there, no mask on. and he's not six feet away from anyone else. do we know if other people in the white house are now quarantining who were working with him this week? >> reporter: well, we know that the white house is doing the contact tracing that they say they do whenever there's a positive case. we haven't gotten a lot of updates about the status of meadows' health. he's in his early 60s. but we do expect that we'll be hearing more about this in the coming days. there's been some reporting that mark meadows had instructed people around him not to disclose his covid diagnosis. the white house, obviously, aware that this is the last thing that they need right now as they're fighting this

election battle. >> the most important thing to do is let people know and contact trace, if you have it. and mark meadows, chief of staff to the president of the united states, didn't want to disclose it. think about that. ali, josh, thank you both so much. we've got to take a quick break. coming up next, president trump's attorneys, they say more legal battles are coming, but do those battles have any weight? and hwho are his attorneys? ♪ ♪

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they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/now and never go to the post office again! welcome back. i'm stephanie ruhle. we are following the breaking news right now, as vote-counting continues in key battleground states across this country. i want to take you first to the big board, where richard lui is standing by. richard, give us an update. >> yeah, morgan chesky earlier

telling us, right, that they're going to get a large number of votes coming out of arizona. now, we're going to focus on arizona, because for biden, three of the nine ways that he could become the next president of the united states -- there are nine paths to victory for him -- they all go through arizona. and specifically, when you look at arizona, the focus has been, as morgan was telling us, that is maricopa county. right now, the rough estimate of outstanding votes, 160-odd thousand, this is about two-thirds of the state's population in maricopa. they also have two-thirds of the estimated votes that are still remaining to be tabulated. now, if you are looking at where the remaining votes are in the state, they are in -- you can see the large yellow bubbles here, size of the leads here, blue. so, maricopa is blue. that's where a lot number of the votes are coming in, expected to go blue. but if you're president trump, this is a state he should have.

stephanie, a democrat has not won the states -- this state, only once since harry truman. so, will it happen again? now, in order for that to happen outside of maricopa, this number here of 29,000, that's the lead for biden, that would have to clearly go down below. and at the moment, donald trump's average he is winning in these latest results, in the low 50s. he needs the low 60s, stephanie, to be able to overtake that amount and avoid a recount on top of that. >> well, he's asking for a recount in at least one state, and i want to talk a little bit more about that. richard, don't go anywhere. i'll be back in a few. president trump's attorneys, they've got more legal battles ahead, saying they are going to challenge what they claim are voting irregularities in these four key battleground states where the votes are being counted. i want to update you on here's where things stand right now. in georgia, state election officials have already said a recount will likely happen,

simply because the results are so close. in pennsylvania, republicans sought an emergency order on friday to not count late-arriving ballots. in nevada, the trump campaign claims, without any evidence, that thousands of people improperly cast their mail-in ballots. and in arizona, the trump campaign and the rnc are raising issues with the use of sharpies on ballots. however, the state says sharpies can absolutely be used and they even work better than pens. i want to be very, very clear, there is absolutely no evidence, at least none we've seen, of any widespread voter fraud that the president and his team are alleging. they're not giving any evidence. i want to dig into this. joining us now, nbc election law analyst gee charles. first of all, looking at all of these lawsuits, do you think any stand out as having real legal legs?

>> absolutely none, quite frankly. the only one that has the potential of having legal legs is the one in pennsylvania, the segregated ballots, the ones that came in after election day. but that's only the potential. but it also is not going to make a difference in the outcome, given what the margins are. and what you've been seeing -- and this is, i think, what you've pointed out as well -- is that the courts have been dismissing these lawsuits, or refusing the remedies asked for by the trump campaign. at best, they have gotten the ability to observe closer in pennsylvania, but other than that, they filed lawsuits in many places -- michigan, georgia, nevada, arizona, pennsylvania, of course, where they have about seven or eight lawsuits going, but they've amounted to nothing. and the reason is because exactly what you've already pointed out, there is no evidence that something has gone wrong, that there's systemic fraud or violations or violations of anyone's rights throughout the voting process.

>> let's go back to pennsylvania, because you just mentioned it. president trump's team, with this emergency order to not count late-arriving ballots. help us understand the law there, because the average person on its face might say, well, sure, you shouldn't be counting them after the fact. but aren't you allowed legally? >> so, this is what happened. before the election, lawyers went into court and they said in pennsylvania, they challenged the rule that pennsylvania has that the ballots have to arrive on election day. the supreme court of pennsylvania entered a ruling that said, look, if a mail-in ballot is mailed before election day but it arrives a few days afterwards, then it can be counted. so, the republicans, of course, objected to that, and they attempted to get the supreme court to rule otherwise, and the court has never done so, even though they've tried on a number of different occasions.

so, this is a ruling from the pennsylvania supreme court, allowing these ballots that have been cast and mailed before election day to count, even though they arrived after election day. so, it's completely legal, consistent with the state's rules. now, the republicans' argument is that the state supreme court does not have the power to do so, but this is consistent with the state's rules or the state's internal legal rulings and obligations. >> so, if a lot of these challenges are already being thrown out in court, how is it that the president says he plans to take the election to the supreme court? with what? >> well, first of all, it's important to note that you just can't go in and file a case in the supreme court. this is a very rare, rare thing, where you can actually litigate a case in the supreme court in the original instance. so, the idea that you're going to go to the supreme court and litigate this case is absolutely false. the second thing is, in order

for cases to make their way, up through the lower courts, for them to make their way, there has to be a legal violation. so there has to be evidence. and part of the problem here that the president's legal team is facing is the absence of evidence, the absence that something is going wrong, that wrong ballots are being counted, there's fraud, there's something happening in the process. and if that were the case, the courts would entertain these claims, but that is not happening, and they've tried across a number of different states. one of the things that we know is that this election has been well run, in part because of the litigation that started before the election. and so, county officials, state election officials, they've done a really good job. they know that they are under scrutiny. they've taken care to protect voter rights and to count the votes as carefully, as meticulously as possible. and so, there are very few things to complain about, quite

frankly. and what is happening is the people have voted, and it looks like, from all that we can tell, that the president is losing in many of these battleground states, and that is just not a legal violation. >> the american people voted. their votes are being counted. the process is working. we're going to keep reporting the truth. gee, thank you so much for joining us. you definitely made us smarter. >> thank you. coming up next, why is it taking so long to count the votes in pennsylvania, or is it taking long at all? is this just how the process works? my next guest has the answer. 5g is going to change everything about the way businesses run. and most important is the ability to transform the smallest of businesses right in our neighborhoods. we created the 5g business impact challenge to give them the tools

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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, just as al gore did, and stop this and let us move forward as a country. >> big boy pants. i don't like that turn of phrase. we are still waiting on results to come in from the state of it. april. and this is a state -- don't forget it -- that could send vp biden over 270. that's what he needs to win. joining us now to get the latest on the keystone state, john mysic, editor and chief for "the pennsylvania star." john, you've been covering p.a. for years. >> yes. >> to those of us watching, it feels like the process is taking forever, but is it? compare it to any other election year. >> yeah, stephanie, so, there are new variables this year in pennsylvania. this is the first time that pennsylvania has used widespread mail-in balloting, which, by the way, i should point out, was the product of a bipartisan agreement between the republican-controlled general assembly and democratic governor tom wolf. we have some legislative

republicans in pennsylvania now who are crying foul over this, but this balloting process, to allow pennsylvanians to vote in the midst of a pandemic was the product of a bipartisan agreement between governor wolf and the republican-controlled general assembly. there are 3 million ballots cast. and what's important to note here also is that wolf and the general assembly tried for several weeks to reach agreement on an earlier precanvassing deadline that would have allowed counties to open the ballots but not count them ahead of election day. that didn't happen before lawmakers left for an election day holiday, so that meant the counties couldn't start counting ballots until 7:00 a.m. on tuesday, november 3rd. so, in this case, time takes time. it often takes a long time to know who finally won an election, but this is a particularly special circumstance. >> it is a good thing. it means so many pennsylvanians went out there and exercised their right to vote. do you think we're going to get a count today? >> you know, i woke up on friday morning thinking we were going to get a count as well.

the numbers are smaller than they were yesterday, which is encouraging, so that might well happen. there's about 20,000 votes left to be counted in philly, about 31,000 left to be counted in allegheny county, and they've been working around the clock on this, and i think the clock on this. and they are starting back up in allegheny county at 9:00. and they will are moving at a pretty decent clip so i will cross my fingers on this one. >> wow, i appreciate you giving laura barrett a shout-out, not just on the show but watching it. and one thing the american people, what is one thing the american people need to know about the state of pennsylvania? >> it is a vast and diverse state. if i could, i just want to put one thing to bed. president trump has been falsely claiming that there is voter fraud going on in pennsylvania but in fact, if you look down the ballot republicans have been winning in races, one statewide

office, a republican is leading for tate treasurer right now, it's all one ballot, so the idea that somehow there is only fraud in this one specific race, when voters are casting their votes on a single unified mail-in ballot, it begs the imagination. pennsylvania frk yif you look a the map, a very red state, with oasis of blue, in penn state, in the lehigh valley and flipping back to plblue this cycle after going to president trump in 2016. it is a culturally diverse state. geographically vast. and it is almost six pennsylvanians rather than just one. >> good to have you here. and good to remind the audience, no evidence of any ort of irregularities of voter fraud. >> thank you. the process is working. >> regardless of who wins the

presidency, what we do know is there is almost certainly going to be a lot of gridlock, a lot with the split congress and democrats control the house and it looks like republicans will maintain the control of the senate but we won't know for sure until january's runoff races. despite joe biden's promises about reaching across the aisle, the bigger question is, how much appetite will there really be for bipartisan prox micompromisd joe biden win? debbie dingell congresswoman from michigan joins us now. thanks for getting up early or staying up late depending what your week looks like. this race seems like a referendum on trump but it seems like a referendum on the far left. a lot of moderate democrats who are furious about the progressive poll and it may cost the democratic party and we'll

see. you are someone from michigan. that progressive flow may work in a place like new york but what does it do for where you are? >> good morning. i don't know what i am, up late or up early, but everybody needs to take a deep breath and stop. we got to be very careful to not be judgmental. we've got a lot of people who are pointing fingers at everybody and i don't, look, rashida tlaib's district and mine are so intertwined, we don't even realize it and she represents the district that she represents and we do things together, because we literally have steel plants that are half in her district, half in mine, she borders the rouge of complex, and we work together on a lot of things, i think we got to take a deep breath and not be

judgmental. i think there that there are people that voted for donald trump that don't like his bullying and his language, or almost anything about his style, but they think democrats look down at him, and i think we've got a union problem as much as we've got other issues but i think republicans have got to do some real soul searching, too. they are losing women. they are desperate for consistency, and everybody has to take a deep breath and not be judgmental and not point fingers and all of us have to worry about the divide and we got to come together and get some things together, where we come together for our constituents in america. >> let's say, joe biden flipping your state, doesn't solve it. >> no. >> people in the state of michigan had a plot to kidnap the governor. your state had people protesting in the capitol with long guns

over gyms not reopening. you've had it in your own front yard. where do you go from here? this divide doesn't just disappear. >> so we have to find common ground. i mean there are things, the governor is trying very hard, right now, to not have to shut michigan down again. thee cares deeply about the lives of every michigander, i talk to her almost every single day. our numbers are surging again. but what we got to try to do is, i don't know how nasty, things are so political, that aside, i think one of the first things that joe biden if elected president is going to pull together op both sides and develop a covid strategy, which we simply don't. ha have. when you have a president if he would just wear his mask would save thousands of lives. if republicans and democrats could come together on a covid strategy, and where else can we find common ground on by the

way? infrastructure. governor whitmer wanted to fix the damn roads, republicans and democrats, both not only are roads and bridges fixed but log jams for so many people and there are things to find common ground on and we need to act. >> i do have to ask you, i was thinking about it this week, your late husband, the late congressman john dingell, he wasn't just an enthusiast, about the american way, he was a champion of voting rights, if he were allowed, if he were alive today, if he saw that we were on pace for record turnout, over 145 million americans voting, what would he say? >> i sure wish we could hear his twitter right now. he would say the process is working. >> me, too. >> and that's why it is taking so long. i know, he was so good with words. but right now, we're all tired, we're watching every second, we're glued to the tv, but the

system is working, and we're counting the vote. and by the way both candidates got record numbers of votes. that's an an awakening for all of us too. democracy is best when people are invested, when they're voting, they're exercising their vote, so the fact that we have maximum number of people participate is good. and now, we can't pit ourselves against each other, and we're divided, and we have to find some common ground and i'm somebody who is going to reach across the aisle, and i've always reached across the aisle, fred upton is one of my best friends, and rashida tlaib is like a sister to me, too, my world is, i work with everybody, but that's how i know, and that's how i could tell you a week ago, everybody got mad at me, i was right, because i listen. >> what a way to end our conversation, congresswoman. democracy is working when so many people are involved.

and people are glued to their tvs watching cable. thank you. congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. and stay with us. as we watch breaking updates with these all-important vote counts this morning. we are on the ground, where all of it is happening don't. go anywhere. what better time than now to be watching cable? n now to be watching cable humira patients,... ...this one's for you. you inspired us to make your humira experience even better... with humira citrate-free. it has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, there's less liquid, and a thinner needle... with less pain immediately following injection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. and you can use your co-pay card to pay as little as $5 a month. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections,... ...including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,... ...as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems,...

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