head to pennsylvania in the coming days, unclear if he'll go to georgia. former president obama expected to go to both places. early voting in both states, too, turn up has been up. camila dechalus, thank you for joining us, and thank you to all of you for getting up "way too early" on this thursday. "morning joe" starts right now. don't go anywhere. >> things aren't going much better for herschel. his campaign for senate gets nuttier by the day. >> in less than two years, this is where we at. and now you're asking for six more years. do we look like we got peanuts in our brain? >> hmm, let me think about that for an hour. is the answer yes? i say yes. >> it might be. there's more from georgia this morning. a second woman comes forward to accuse republican senate candidate herschel walker of paying for her abortion 30 years ago. like the other woman, this

accuser also apparently has receipts. we'll have the latest on that development. plus, president biden and key members of his cabinet hit the road to play defense on the economy with election day now just 12 days away. we'll have more on their message and the new polling that shows things may be swinging back in democrats' favor. it's tight, though. and donald trump is set to hit the road ahead of election day, including a stop in florida. one key republican hasn't been invited to that event. the governor, we'll have reaction from allies of ron desantis who are not happy. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, october 27th. joe is off, but along with willie and me, we have u.s. special correspondent for bbc news, katty kay, the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire. and willie, as we get closer to election day, things are getting

a lot tighter and it seems like democrats might be working to diversify their message as they move forward. >> they're talking about the economy. is it too late with less than two weeks to go, but pushing an economic message. a new batch of ballot polls show things trending slightly in the direction of democrats. 46% of registered voters say they prefer their local democratic nominee for congress, compared to 42% who prefer the republican. last week the margin was 1% in favor of democrats. the latest poll from "politico," and morning consult shows a similar story, 2 percentage points, compared to last week, while support for republicans has fallen 2%. the numbers for both major parties are down from last week in the latest ipsos poll. in that poll, 14% say they are still undecided.

we can ride the wave of generic polls. not sure how much they mean. they are going to be decided in pennsylvania, nevada and georgia, but an interesting snapshot of where we are. >> yeah, in a moment we're going to talk about exactly what is the democrat message on the economy. what is their message for voters who right now are going through a lot, who are feeling the effects of an economy that seems to be slipping a bit, and yet they have a lot of wins, a lot of legislative wins to brag on, but yet, how do they bring that together into a strong message that could bring it home on election day. we'll look into that in just a moment, but this morning, we have a new allegation against herschel walker to report. another woman has come forward accusing the georgia republican senate candidate of pressuring her into having an abortion. the woman appeared anonymously yesterday with her lawyer, gloria allred. she claims she became involved with the former football player

back in 1987 while he was still married and became pregnant with his child back in 1993. she says he encouraged her several times to have an abortion, and she eventually went to a clinic in dallas to have the procedure but didn't go through with it, which she alleges made walker upset. she claims he then drove her to the clinic and waited outside in the parking lot for hours until she came back out. here's what she had to say about why she is coming forward now. >> herschel walker says he is against women having abortions. but he pressured me to have one. i am coming forward now because i saw herschel deny the allegations by another woman who claimed that he had paid for her abortion and particularly i saw him state that the woman's

claims were not true because he never signed any cards using the letter h. i knew that was not true because he had often signed letters to me using h. anyone who believes i am coming toward because herschel is running as a republican candidate, that is simply not the case. i am a registered independent, and i voted for donald trump in both elections. i do not believe that herschel is morally fit to be a u.s. senator, and that is the reason why i am speaking up. >> during yesterday's news conference, the woman's lawyer showed cards, photographs, and receipts that she said supported her client's story.

walker was out campaigning with south carolina senator lindsey graham when he responded to the new allegation. >> i'm done with this foolishness. i've already told people this is a lie, and i'm not going to entertain, continue to carry a lie along, and i also want you to know i didn't kill jfk either, and he got crushed at that debate, now the democrats are doing and saying whatever they can to win this seat. but i want them to know, they don't know herschel walker. >> walker has denied an allegation from another woman who says he paid for her abortion. nbc news has not independently verified this latest allegation, and willie, just looking at this race overall, first of all, this candidate is a proven liar. his own children, one of his adult children has come out and said he's a proven liar, and backs the claims that he ran around the state with many

women, rather than parented him. i mean, this is ultimately up to the georgia voters if this is what they think is the candidate of their choice. but it shows where we are in politics that a candidate like this can not only survive but thrive. >> despite all of this, despite allegations including another one yesterday, despite the kids he walked away from, the threats he made against his ex-wife, the national party stands behind him. this is a seat they need. they're willing to look the other way on the allegations against him. let's bring in political reporter for the atlantic journal constitution, greg bluestein. is this baked into the race, another allegation against herschel walker, doesn't seem to hurt him among republicans. he's neck in neck with rafael warnock, what impact is all of this having on walker? >> it is likely to go to a

december runoff. a shocking bomb shell report comes out, walker denies it as a lie or doesn't address it at all, and national republicans rally to his side. you know, it's a very important development here in georgia, will it affect the race. even democrats highly doubt that possibility because as one elected official texted me last night, if the first report claiming that herschel walker pressed an ex-girlfriend to get an abortion, why should a second right now? >> what will decide this race in the end? as you say, we're likely to go into december on in on a runoff. where will this break, what are independents looking at, the economy, inflation? >> it is the economy, but that's such an important question because there's basically three blocks of republican voters, republican voters who don't believe the reports, don't care about them. a second block of republican

voters that believe them, but think that republican control of the senate trumps everything else, and then there's the third narrow block of voters, swing voters, independents, who usually vote gop, but they're very concerned and they're showing that they're either going to vote for senator warnock, libertarian or skip the race all together. that's the band of voters that could decide this race. that's the reason why we're looking at a possible runoff in december. >> and katty kay, just, i mean, it's hard not to turn away from this ever evolving story with her shell walker and his problems with the truth. and his problems with the policies and the beliefs that he's putting forward, you know, antiabortion candidate clearly has some issues with his relationships with women. potentially pushed several to get abortions and maybe even paid for them. we'll put that to one side.

i'm with jemele hill, it's condescending to african-americans and democrats. let's look at the democrats, why isn't raphael warnock doing better? >> you would think he would be the ideal candidate. he is a pastor. he has had one race before in georgia, he's proved himself in the senate for two years. he's been part of a huge stimulus package that he campaigned on that was then passed. he's not mentioning that stimulus package at all now, and he's out on the campaign trail. he didn't seem in the debate with herschel walker to take the fight to him very much. maybe he felt his job as a pastor made it hard to attack on moral grounds. could he have gone harder at herschel walker on those debates. when you look at voters in georgia at the moment, and you

think of particularly suburban women voters around atlanta, and you weigh these two candidates and throw in the issue of dobbs and the abortion, you would think, wouldn't you, that rafael warnock would be the ideal candidate as opposed to herschel walker for them, but it's not clear from the polling that he's far ahead on this. >> not at all, it's a neck-in-neck race, and senator warnock frames himself as a pro choice pastor. the real reason or the number one reason this is such a tight race is joe biden, he has a 38% approval rating here in georgia. and republicans can just continue to weigh senator warnock down with joe biden's approval ratings, like an anchor, and that continues to be a factor in this race, and look, senator warnock is still running far ahead of stacey abrams, she's 8 to 10 points pack of governor brian kemp, while it's a neck in neck race in the senate contest, and one reason why that is is because senator

warnock continues to hold joe biden at arm's length. he's trying to appeal to the middle of the electorate and mobilize those voters and he feels at least that tying himself to president biden, even saying he wants president biden to run for reelection is damaging. he won't answer that question on the campaign trail, and he talks more about working with ted cruz and tommy tuberville than he does working with joe biden. that is a clear aim for the middle of the electorate. >> 12 days to go. still looking back at the last election, former president trump's white house chief of staff mark meadows has been ordered to testify as part of an investigation into the 2020 election interference in georgia. a south carolina judge ruled meadows must comply with the subpoena to appear before the special grand jury in fulton county. meadows who lives in south carolina has tried to avoid testifying as part of the probe. a spokesperson for the fulton

county district attorney fani willis says meadows will not appear before the grand jury until sometime after the midterm elections next month with this kind of on pause right now, this investigation. greg, i want to play part of a phone call where mark meadows is on tape trying to influence the counting of the votes in the state of georgia back in january of 2021. >> mr. secretary, obviously there is -- there are allegations where we believe not every vote or fair vote and legal vote was counted. and that's at odds with the representation from the secretary of state's office. what i'm hopeful for is there some way that we can find some kind of an agreement to look at this a little bit more fully, you know, the president mentioned fulton county, but in

some of these areas where there seems to be a difference of where the facts seem to lead and so mr. secretary, i was hopeful that, you know, in the spirit of cooperation and compromise, is there something that we can at least have a discussion to look at some of these allegations to find a path forward that's less litigious. >> he told secretary of state raffensperger to find the votes. raffensperger, of course, resisted that, to his credit. how much trouble could mark meadows be in here as he sits to testify for this grand jury? >> you know, all options are on the table, as far as we know from the fulton county grand jury, and fulton county

investigators. that call is one reason why they want to see him on the witness stand because he was also part of a december 2020 meeting and the white house promoting false election claims involving georgia. to me, most interestingly, he visited a site in suburban atlanta around the same time where an audit of georgia absentee ballots was underway. surprising officials. they want to hear from him on that visit as well. >> let's tie the two story lines together and talk about the role that donald trump plays in the midterm election there in georgia. we know that georgia officials, raffensperger, the governor, kemp, stood up to trump's efforts to overturn the election in 2020. we know that herschel walker is trump's hand picked candidate for the senate. trump scheduled for a bunch of rallies in the coming days. georgia is not on there yet. what's the impact the former president is going to have here in the closing stretch where you are? >> and that's why georgia defies the sort of easy narrative of this election being a referendum

on donald trump. it's not here. secretary kemp, and brad raffensperger, not just defeated donald trump back challengers, but demolished them. governor kemp beat david perdue by 52 points. they don't talk about donald trump on the campaign trail. governor kemp won't antagonize him, he doesn't want to rile up his supporters. he's talking about his record, not donald trump. herschel walker did have donald trump's, that wouldn't affect the outcome of the race with herschel walker being a sky high name recognition in a state like georgia. it's not going to be a referendum on trump, but it's notable in the final days of this race, donald trump has not put georgia on a schedule, and there are many senior republican officials who not want him to come, even those aligned with herschel walker. >> so interesting, reporter for

the "atlanta journal-constitution." thank you very much. trump is doing rallies over the weekend, going to florida, campaigning for marco rubio, and no desantis at that event. just doesn't seem to have any interest in connecting. usually the governor is there for these evens. we'll talk about that. >> and still ahead on "morning joe," protests in iran have entered a sixth week. what we're learning about new sanctions against iranian officials following a violent crackdown on those nationwide demonstrations. plus, some democrats are growing nervous about pennsylvania following this week's senate debate between john fetterman and dr. mehmet oz. we'll take a look at how some members of the party are reacting to fetterman's debate performance. and one of our next guests has a prediction. he believes sometime next year, republicans in the house are going to impeach president biden

and possibly other administration officials as well. we'll talk about why. also ahead, republicans have been ramping up outreach to minority voters. we'll have new reporting on the extent of those efforts and what it could mean for the midterms. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ms you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. research shows that people remember ads with young people having a good time. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's a pool party. look what i brought! liberty mutual! they customize your home insurance... so you only pay for what you need! ♪young people having a good time with insurance.♪ ♪young people.♪ ♪good times.♪ ♪insurance!♪ only pay for what you need. ♪liberty liberty. liberty. liberty.♪

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half a dozen other administration officials who will hold economic addresses today, including a major economic address in ohio from treasury secretary janet yellen. by tomorrow, officials will have made 77 trips to 29 states just this month with more already planned. willie. >> and most of those trips are focused on the economy and on inflation with the president planning to shine a bright light on what he calls republicans' mega maga trickle down economic policies. senior administration officials are framing the republican priorities as a five-part plan, extending the trump tax cuts, and repealing tax reforms and the prescription drug reform plan and inflation reduction act. the law's improvements on the affordable care act, repealing the clean energy policies in the inflation reduction act and suing to stop president biden's student loan relief plan. the administration argues republican goals will make inflation worse and says the

president's policies will create an economy from the bottom up and middle out. this is an admission that this is the message they should have had all along. abortion is important, democracy is important. all of those things remain on the radar, but it is in the end for most voters, the economy. >> mega maga trickle down policies doesn't roll off the ton but it's going to be the president's message. today in upstate new york but also as his relatively limited campaign appearances going forward. this is what the white house wants to focus on. threats to democracy, important, abortion rights, of course important, and the administration does want to be able to tout what it and democrats in congress accomplished over the summer, which is quite a bit. it seems that the final plot twist is about the economy, rising prices and the white house is trying to focus on that now. and it is interesting where the president is delivering this message. it's to focus on the chips act,

the manufacturing, upstate new york that matters, and also aids tell me to give kathy hochul a boost, the new york governor in a surprisingly close race. and the president is going to be in pennsylvania a lot in the next week or so. but not too many other places. the white house still knows that biden's poll numbers aren't that high. a lot of campaigns aren't that eager to have him join their candidates at events. he's not going out to arizona. he's not getting out to nevada, at least for now. nothing in michigan or wisconsin either. he's going to focus on pennsylvania. he's going to raise as much money as he can, frame the stakes, big picture to deliver the closing argument for his party, a party that is growing nervous, mika, here. the house, going to be hard to keep, i think most democrats acknowledge that. but the senate, 50/50, and so much of it is going to come down, probably a trio of states, nevada, georgia, as we have been discussing, and of course pennsylvania. >> this is a really tough slog,

and senator bernie sanders is hitting the campaign trail across the country to help get out the vote. the independent senator from vermont has 15 scheduled appearances over the next two weekends, heading to key swing states to help drive turnout and excitement among young people and working class voters. the senator's tour starts today in oregon and california, then moves east to key states like wisconsin and pennsylvania. and katty, you have been traveling across the country for your bbc special on trump's america, and i'm curious, is it going to be possible at this time for the democrats to be able to have a message that does two things at once, that talks about the republicans and abortion and their sort of inhumane policies and taking your rights away, versus touting the legislative wins that could help the economy, but not exactly right now because a lot

of legislation and policies takes time to deliver. this is a tough one. >> yeah, i mean, i think you've laid out why it's so complicated for them. i think early on in the biden administration, they passed this massive $1.9 trillion rescue package after covid, and they really hoped in the white house that this was going to be the package of measures that would help them in the midterms, help them keep the house and senate, and then of course those $1,400 checks that were paid directly to people, the $300 a month child tax credit which sunseted -- sun setted and was a boost at the time, was nowhere in democratic ads. they're not talking about it because of the inflationary possibilities of stimulus, and them getting hammered by republicans for inflation. the one economic message they felt they had they can't talk about and the inflation reduction act, some of the economic policies aren't delivering benefits until next year. people aren't feeling those either. it's an economic bind with some

80% of the population saying the economy is their most important voting issue, i think the democrats are right, they have to start talking about this, and you're right, you know, they probably should be doing this earlier. they had to be able to do two things at once, and sending out somebody like bernie sanders is a clear indication they realize they have to speak to working class and middle class voters about issues like the economy because that is the issue he's associated with and try and gin of support to get out and vote. >> the president of the united states never thought in the final stretch of this campaign he would have to be in new york to defend the sitting governor there in a tight race, and democrats pouring money into districts biden won sometimes by double digits. things are getting tense for democrats. meanwhile, former president donald trump has announced a series of rallies in the lead up to election day. one week from today, trump will be in sioux city, hey, with kim reynolds, and incumbent senator chuck grassley who finds himself

in a closer than expected race against democratic candidate mike franken. saturday, november 5th, just before election day, trump travels to pennsylvania for a rally for republican gubernatorial candidate, doug mastriano, and senate candidate, dr. mehmet oz, and on sunday, the former president will travel to florida for a rally with senator marco rubio. but one notable absence, governor ron desantis, not mentioned in trump's e-mail announcing the rally. and on election eve, the former president will be in ohio for a rally with j.d. vance. back to the florida event. some allies of desantis are angry donald trump has scheduled a rally in florida two days before election day. for marco rubio, a long time republican consultant who is close to the governor tells "politico" quote you've got the sunday before election day totally hijacked by trump force one taking up the whole day. no republican can go to a

desantis event that day, and desantis won't be there. end quote. this is big. another person influential said it's an elbow to ron's throat. an adviser denies conflict between san -- desantis. >> donald trump doesn't love the national attention desantis has been getting. his flirtations of running in 2024, something donald trump would like to do too. >> this is fun. trump for a long time has said, he feels that desantis, he said this privately to people around him. it was trump's endorsement of desantis that helped propel his at least somewhat long shot campaign to victory, and he feels that desantis has not been

kissing the ring. those with presidential aspirations, a number have said, i'm considering a white house run but i'll stop if trump jumps in. desantis is not doing that. he started the trend. a few others, including mike pence also doing the same. this is interesting. florida has trended republican in recent cycles. it's still a battleground. it's still a light red at this moment. a key state clearly in 2024. rubio does have a race there. it's competitive. seen as a long shot for democrats. desantis is going to cruise to victory it seems. trump is there putting his thumb on the scale, picking one over another. this is going to be a decision. the relationship between desantis and trump is going to be one so closely watch in the months ahead as both men do eye 2024. >> ron desantis is in donald trump's way, and so donald trump will be a child and a bully. and move him out of the way.

if anyone thinks anything different, they haven't been watching donald trump for the past six years. it's the way it goes. he is very very very scared of ron desantis in that ron desantis might do better than him in a 2024 presidential election, and that just scarce donald trump because he wants to run again, maybe, some might say, to get away from some legal woes. we'll see how it works out. we'll see what happens to trump. still ahead this morning, there's a troubling trend across the country. as we get closer to the midterms, many poll workers are sitting out this election. we'll be joined by a reporter who has been investigating the impact on our democracy. also ahead, president biden weighs in on the future of aid for ukraine. if the republicans take control of the house. we'll have those comments and the ramifications of democrats losing the chamber next. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. next. "morning joe" is back in just a moment

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are you worried about ukraine aid? >> yeah, i am worried about that because they said they'll cut it. >> that's president biden last week react to go comments from house minority leader kevin mccarthy that if republicans retake control of congress next month, they could scale back funding for ukraine. joining us now, u.s. national editor at the financial times, ed luce. thanks for being on. in your latest piece for the "financial times," entitled

"america's brittle consensus on ukraine" you write this, the imperatives confronting ukraine and biden are still the same. the faster ukraine can roll back russia's military, the better for everyone. but american and ukrainian interests will diverge as 2024 looms, as both pay masters and quarter master, america's support is indispensable. the white house maintains it will be ukraine's choice how this war comes to an end. that will be true until the moment it's not. the return of trump in 2024 would be putin's ultimate get out of jail free card. in the past eight months, putin has united the west and forged a lasting sense of ukrainian nationhood. but peak western unity has probably been reached. democracy's biggest existential stakes are still in the u.s., in

addition to surrender or deal, war has a third outcome. indefinite suspension. the hotter america's politics becomes, the greater the temptation to freeze ukraine 's. and i think, ed, you're touching on something that has concerned me throughout this election process that i know that candidates need to talk about the economy, and they need to talk about abortion and issues that impact the american voters' lives, i do not feel that a clear message on why ukraine -- why support of ukraine, why this war in ukraine is so important to win on every level for the sake of democracy, for the sake of the world, and as a result, republicans, instead of perhaps doing the right thing and a lot of republicans have gone through poland and kyiv to look at what's been happening firsthand and support america's support of the war, and yet it's too easy to twist on the campaign trail.

it's too easy to twist as why can't we focus more on us, and i worry that the ultimate winners will be saudi arabia, iran, russia, and donald trump. yeah, the absence of ukraine is an issue, i think, sort of reflects the fact that by and large, there has been bipartisan consensus for the first eight months of this war. and the fact that it's not a hugely resonant thing in terms of biden's poll numbers. he deserves bounce. i think he's handled the ukraine war really exceptionally well. but i think that's going to change. the idea that republican's support for funding for the ukraine war effort is going to continue at a time when they're going to be trying to impeach trump if they regain control of the house, that kevin mccarthy, he's not really a leader, he's a

follower and who does he follow. he follows the freedom caucus. he follows the extremists in his own party. he's terrified of them. the idea that there will be another game of chicken over the debt ceiling, which there will. there are going to be impeachment efforts, investigations of hunter biden and the things we know will come if republicans retake control. support for ukraine will remain off limits, uncontaminated by this. that's naive. as we go into 2023 with a likely, at least partial republican control of congress, ukrainian policy is going to be fragile. it's going to be until the mix, and it's not going to be cordoned off, and that's a concern. for sure that's a concern. >> ed, to what extent does that reflect public opinion? i saw a poll recently that showed in the beginning of the war, 9% of republicans felt

america was giving too much aid to ukraine. by september that had risen to a third of republican voters who felt that, but you've also seen some signs of dissent within the democratic party with the letter sent and retracted from the progressive caucus that 30 democrats signed, and certainly when i was traveling around the country, ukraine was raised a surprising amount. i wasn't asking about ukraine, but it was an issue that voters on both sides of the aisle, both democrats and republicans raised to me saying, you know, why have we spent, it was back then, 40 billion. why have we spent $40 billion in ukraine when we should be helping americans back home. you can pass those arguments but there is a feeling out there, i think, among some democratic and some republican voters that perhaps in money doesn't make sense to them. the argument is not been sold to them effectively. what can joe biden do, if you've got this growing america first wing, after the midterm elections. what can joe biden do to kind of

try and find a work around to get aid to ukraine or will december potentially be the last big aid package for zelenskyy? >> yeah, i mean, the current money that was approved earlier this year is running out fast. the one big criticism, katty, that i have of biden is he hasn't really given a single address to the nation about ukraine. it's come up the whole time, of course, but there's not been a framing of what is at stake here in terms of european stability, as well as allies across the atlantic in terms of the future of global democracy. i think if you look at america's inflation rates, sure the ukraine war has added far more in europe, by the way, with energy prices than here. it's not the primary driver of inflation. so a leveling with the american public about just how important this is would be very helpful.

the pro putin wing of the republican party is real. they're a minority of the republican party. as we've seen again and again on a number of issues over many years, what begins as the extremist majority position becomes mainstream pretty quickly, and that is a big danger. as regards to democratic progressive 30 lawmakers and their very inept letter and then withdrawal of the letter to the president, you know, clearly that was inept, but the wordy diploma -- diplomacy shouldn't be a dirty word. wars end in one of two ways, with unconditional surrender or a deal, and we're not going to have an unconditional surrender of putin's russia.

so eventually a deal will have to happen. it will be a deal on current trends that will be decisively in ukraine's favorite, but it's going to happen at some point. i would differentiate the debate within the democratic party, which i think is very valid to this pro putin tide that is rising in the republican party. >> all right. u.s. national editor at "the financial times" ed luce, thank you very much for your insights this morning. we appreciate it. and coming up white house chief of staff ron klain will join us ahead of president biden's economic speech in upstate new york today. plus, our next guest says that if republicans retake the house, they will impeach president biden, and that just may be the tip of the iceberg. we'll explain straight ahead on "morning joe." iceberg. we'll explain straight ahead on "morning joe." ♪ hit it!♪ ♪it takes two to make a thing go right♪ ♪it takes two to make it outta sight♪

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of the house, and might not stop there. good morning, it's good to see you. let's start first with, we can get to what the charge might be against joe biden in a moment. if you talk privately, some of them say it out loud publicly. when they step off the settle, most democrats can see that the house is gone. it's just a question of the margin, and by how much they're going to lose here in the next couple of weeks. if that is true, and republicans control the house, there are a number of them. some of them, by the way, have tried to introduce articles of impeachment against him but who have said they definitely will. what does that look like exactly? when do they start, and what kind of pressure will they be under from donald trump who, after all, is the boss from whom they take their orders? >> if you think about it, impeachment is sort of the mathematical corollary of the big lie. if you've been led to believe that the president is illegitimate, that he's in the white house, and the oval office

by cheating, if you're not joining a militia, the least of the remedies you'll accept is his removal. and so you already have the same 2/3 of all republicans who believe that biden is illegitimate also support impeachment, and interestingly, well over half of republicans believe there will be impeachment, and house republicans are going to ignore that sentiment at their peril. there is already going to be a considerable amount of pressure from the base for retribution for the impeachments of donald trump and for all the investigations of trump, and you had -- it's not well known. you just referred to it, already in biden's first two years, he's been subject to close to a dozen

impeachment resolutions. marjorie taylor greene introduced one on the very first day of his presidency. you don't hear about them because with republicans in control of the house, they simply disappear. nancy pelosi is not going to schedule floor time for a referral to a committee for a resolution like that, but kevin mccarthy, whether he wants to or not is not going to be able to ignore this pressure for impeachment. >> as you write in the piece, there's expectation among republican voters, their representatives will undertake these articles of impeachment. a poll showing 70% of republicans show joe biden should be impeached. seven out of ten republicans. these congress people, men and women feel like they are doing their jobs by introducing these articles of impeachment, and also because the president of the united states, let's be honest, could be indicted in the coming weeks. >> the former president, yes. >> the former president, excuse

me, the bar for the retribution. the stakes will have been raised, which gets to the next question, on what charges would they impeach joe biden. what is in front of them? what do you believe they can get him on? >> well, first of all, to some extent, there are republicans who say it doesn't even really matter. that impeachment is going to come in revenge for what was done to trump, and ted cruz said whether it's justified or not, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and so the exact specifications of the charge are to be determined. but something to do with hunter biden is one likely possibility. they are going to try to tie the president to the misadventures of his son. in ukraine, in china, his business dealings and so on,

there has yet to be any publicly known evidence that ties the two together, but they will certainly be looking. there have been impeachment resolutions in the current congress, because of the disorderly withdrawal from afghanistan, because of the extension of rent, a freeze on rent increases, because of the use of the strategic oil reserve. name your issue, but republicans have not yet settled on which one is actually going to make biden vulnerable enough. and i should mention that. impeachment is not kevin mccarthy's plan. it is the plan of important influential voices in the freedom caucus, and they are going to be amplified when

donald trump gets around to talking about this, and my prediction is that trump will call for biden's impeachment, it's what he does. >> so barton, you mentioned hunter biden, republicans think even a flurry of investigations into the president's son may impact joe biden's decision whether or not to seek reelection is the toll it will be taking on his family. tell more, it's more than an experiment of joe biden in the scenario. they're going after cabinet members, mayorkas and others, and try and snarl up the white house with as many investigations as possible. tell us a little bit about that, but also is there a way where democrats could use that to their advantage, point to go republican overreach? >> that's the big political question, you put your finger on it. the republicans are probably not going to start with biden. what i hear most talk about is impeachment of the homeland

security secretary, mayorkas, as they sometimes accuse him of failing to enforce american law to stop illegal immigration. there have also in the current term, also against antony blinken, against merrick garland and against the vice president, kamala harris. lauren boebert said she should be impeached for failing to invoke the 25th amendment to remove biden from office. if republicans overreach, if they try to impeach biden on grounds the american public see to be trivial, this could go to

biden's benefit. that's what happened with bill clinton, even though he had in fact, lied under oath about monica lewinsky, when congress, when the house impeached him, the american people didn't like it, and his popularity increased and democrats did better in the next election cycle. >> in case you thought barton was exaggerating what ted cruz said, i just pulled it up in january of this year in his podcast, asked about impeachment, he said i do think there's a chance of that, whether it's justified or not, quote, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and as you weigh the reasons republicans say they may want to impeach joe biden, president trump was impeached twice, one for leading an attempted coup against the united states government to overturn an election, and another time for trying to get political dirt on his opponents, holding up aid to ukraine. the piece online for "the

atlantic," thank you so much. coming up, more reaction to tuesday night's debate in the pennsylvania senate race and the comments for two senators praising john fetterman for taking the stage. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. he stage "morning joe" is back in just a moment is or active psoriatic arthritis after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. stand up to your symptoms with rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that tackles pain, stiffness, swelling. for some, rinvoq significantly reduces ra and psa fatigue. it can stop further irreversible joint damage. and rinvoq can leave skin clear or almost clear in psa. that's rinvoq relief. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least one heart disease risk factor have higher risks. don't take if allergic to rinvoq as serious reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant.

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at last night's pennsylvania senate debate, gop candidate dr. oz revealed who he thinks should be involved in medical decisions. >> in a physician i have been in the room when there's difficult conversations happening. i don't want the federal government involved with that at all. i want women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that's always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward. >> tonight on local political leader hospital. >> we're losing him, wow what a mess, that looks more tangled than the downtown intersection before we put in the four-way stop. my idea.

welcome back to "morning joe," it is thursday, october 27th, along with willie and me, we have jonathan lemire and katty kay still with us. joe is off this morning. we're going to begin this hour with the latest on the pennsylvania senate race and some democrats on edge after the debate performance from democratic candidate john fetterman on tuesday night. some members of his party question if he should have appeared on stage. while others wonder if he should have remained on the ballot all together. several democrats who spoke to nbc news, some on the condition of anonymity say they were shocked by the degree to which he struggled to communicate clearly, however, two senate democrats who also suffered strokes are voicing their support for fetterman. ben ray lujan of new mexico tweeted this, proud of john fetterman for bringing so much grit and fight to the debate stage. i know that debates are one of the hardest moments of any

campaign, let alone five months after a serious stroke. i'm glad voters saw the clear contrast in this crucial senate race. and this from senator chris van holland of maryland who suffered a minor stroke in may around the same time as fetterman. >> i'm feeling great, back 100%. i'm lucky. some strokes take longer than others. i'm pleased that john fetterman's doctors say his prognosis is a full recovery, and i was glad to see him get out there yesterday and put his positions on the table. i don't think voters were looking for poetry, as you said, i think they just wanted to know what the positions of the candidates are on a range of issues and he was very clear. i'm looking forward to serving with him, and we can compare notes on our experiences with the strokes. >> joining us now, nbc news senior national political reporter sahil kapur, and before

i go to you, i think there's a lot of reaction to the show yesterday, the reaction here on this show to fetterman's performance. at the same time, two things can be true at the same time, fetterman could have appeared to be struggling a bit due to his stroke, and he also can be, to the minds of some voters, the better candidate, the more honest candidate, the candidate who will do the right thing or make good decisions, despite processing issues in light of a stroke. and yet, it seemed a lot of people were very sensitive to anyone talking about his performance, which clearly was -- it was changed from a performance he would have had had he not had a stroke. i think the realities here are still the same. you have two very different choices in these candidates. >> that's right. mika, it was objectively just a rocky performance for john fetterman.

i think the effects of her stroke and recovery were evident, but at the end of the day, that's still a question for pennsylvania voters as to whether that is going to make the difference, and i don't think that is determined quite yet. the first question is, you know, how many voters in the small group of swing votes, these things are not usually decisive in senate races. debates are less about that evening itself and more about creating moments that out last the evening, that continue to define the race. in the case of fetterman, there are a number of clips that are pretty rough for him that are circulating all over the air waves and it may not be great for him. one answer in particular he talked about fracking that drove home how much he was struggling to communicate a coherent response, and you have the other side of it, dr. oz had some bad moments for himself. one clip in particular has been making the rounds where he talked about, you alluded to it

there in the intro where he talked about abortion should be left to women, doctors, local politicians. there's a viral clip that was created the night of fetterman's campaign that cut that into an ad. that has 7 million views online. that's about the size of the entire pennsylvania voting electorate in the 2020 election. the question is how it's going matter to voters in the remaining last, i guess, less than two weeks now before election day. are they going to punish john fetterman for that performance. do they believe he is fit to serve? his argument from his doctors at the least is his mental faculty is there. his problem is performance and communication in moments like that. democrats we talked to, you know, pennsylvania democrats were cringing a little bit watching that. that was tough to watch for a number of them, and some of them have pangs of anxiety, thinking maybe it will, if it's a one or two point race, it could end up being bad for fetterman. we will see. >> what's the strategy for the

fetterman campaign moving forward because in some ways, one might argue, put him out on live tv, they might have wanted to have done that a lot more before the debates so he could get used to what it would feel like. that kind of bracing, the lights are on you. 8:00 p.m. at night. stress that the body goes through during a debate appearance. i mean, it seemed like a lot to put him through. and given that he did have a stroke, some might be surprised how well he did, even though he did seem to be struggling to process his words. is there a strategy moving forward given the fears in the democratic party that this candidate might not be strong enough? and i wonder if there's what we'll see in future polling, you know, what democrats are feeling versus the pennsylvania voters? might they have empathy. >> a couple of things, first the strategy is to put him in better formats between now and election

day. any format is better than the debate format. he has slowly gotten back to, you know, the campaign trail, doing rallies where he's relatively more comfortable in that situation. he's done more interviews, one-on-one interviews where, you know, again, better for him than that kind of situation where you have 30 seconds to respond. bright lights are on you. you have to respond to this question. between now and then, that's part of the strategy. his allies, publicly are closing ranks around him, his campaign, arguing that this is not -- one debate performance isn't everything, and going heavy on the attack against dr. oz, remember, this campaign is going to be decided in large part by negative partisanship. favorability is 30 to 40% in pennsylvania. he has a rough path to getting elected in a state that is very skeptical of him, and the fetterman campaign sees that, they smell blood. they're going to continue attacking. oz's campaign has decided his

path to getting elected is through negative campaigning, heavy on the attack against fetterman which he has done in the last few months. an already ugly campaign is going to continue to be ugly in the final stretch of it, and the last point of this, mika, is that we have seen through our reporting and focus groups and other people's reporting, stroke survivors and those who have a family member who has been through this are more synthetic to what john fetterman went through. they see elements of their loved one in that struggle, including some doctors did say for his condition he performed reasonably well. this is ultimately a decision for a small, small sliver of voters to decide whether they want john fetterman, dr. oz to be their next senator. >> you have been covering another pivotal senate race, the one down in georgia, yesterday, another woman came forward saying she was in a relationship in the early 1990s with herschel walker and he coerced her and

drove her to get an abortion after she became pregnant. he denies the allegations. effectively republicans feel like the if the laundry list of allegations didn't sink his candidacy, this is another to add to the list and may not sway things. what's your sense of the way democrats and republicans are feeling about georgia? >> it's another woman, another allegation, another denial by herschel walker, this is somewhat similar to an earlier allegation in that a woman that walker dated alleges that she got pregnant while they were in an intimate relationship and he pressured her to have an abortion. in this case, he alleges he drove her to the clinic and gave her money for that abortion which she ultimately carried out. now, the woman who came forward anonymously, she did not reveal her name. she came forward with the

lawyer, gloria allred who did produce the evidence to corroborate the claim they had been in a relationship, in the form of a voice message she shared from herschel walker, cards he appeared to have signed, a photo of him fully clothed on a bed they stayed in at a hotel. she did not provide direct evidence. this is important to know she did not provide direct evidence to corroborate the claim of an abortion, whether it's a receipt from the clinic or anything like that. it's a familiar allegation. i think a lot of voters in georgia have that decision to make. look, i think this breaks down into three categories. georgia voters who believe herschel walker who believe the women. those voters are going to vote for him. there are those who believe the women, who believe he's lying, they will vote for rafael warnock or maybe not vote. and the third category, who believe the women, who don't believe herschel walker but plan to vote for him anyway for one

reason or another. pick your reason. they want a republican senator. they're angry at president biden. they're angry at the left, and they want to take it out on somebody, and as a result, they'll vote for walker. it's difficult to know where this breaks down. we know that this is still about a 2 to 3 point race in favor of the democratic incumbent, rafael warnock, and certainly i think it's fair to say these allegations in the final weeks of the race have not helped herschel walker because they have made the race a referendum on him. they wanted to make it a referendum on president biden, rafael warnock, inflation, all the things that are upsetting voters. and the latest allegation will continue to do that even as he denies it. and republicans at least have two candidates who are looking extremely hypocritical on the issue of abortion, mehmet oz as well as herschel walker at

a time when abortion rights have been taken away from women. you wonder if that will make a difference, and if women will turn out in record numbers. you never know. they might feel strongly about it. nbc political reporter sahil kapur. turning to a concerning trend in communities across the country, the mass exodus of poll workers following the 2020 election. these are the very people who helped make it possible for americans to exercise their right to vote. "the boston globe" has a new in-depth report on the growing problem which reads in part, quote, experts worry that the loss of these foot soldiers of democracy drains the system of experience and institutional knowledge at the very moment election deniers are locking to seize on any actual or alleged mistake to further erode public faith in elections. almost two years after trump's

defeat, election deniers are still pursuing three lines of attack on their profession. challenging and harassing workers directly, making endless demand for records and recounts that love them over burdened and pressuring election officials and law enforcement to join their cause. joining us now is a member of the reporting team who investigated election worker turnover in the u.s. deputy d.c. bureau chief at "the boston globe," tal, thank you very much for being on with us. what are you finding in battle ground states in terms of how many election workers are turning over? >> it's rather alarming. what my colleagues who wrote the story you just quoted, as we looked at comparing the names of election administrators after 2020 to now. what we found across five

battleground states and comparison states, we found roughly one in three of the top administrators of elections across the country left after 2020. and just to be sure we weren't picking up sort of normal rates of turnover, we went back to 2016, and looked at the turnover rates from 2016 to 2018. and after 2016, only a little under 1 in five left. so we're definitely seeing in almost every single state that we looked at, and we looked at some data that showed us trends across the country. every state is seeing more election administrators leave after 2020 than did in 2016, and when i think about it, one in three, when you talk about the brain drain, there's always turnover, but the election administrators i spoke with and my colleagues spoke with say, you know, the way to get through that turnover is have experienced folks in the state who are able to educate new

administrators on the very detailed demands of the job. when you have that many of them leaving. you start to tax the system to a point that they're not sure that transfer of knowledge can occur. >> tal, do you know, looking at the piece, the reasons for these clerks leaving, some are simply retiring, and others are saying constant queries from voters, and also harassment, do we have a sense of how much? is it the hearing from voters constantly and harassment versus retirement factor. >> it's really not easy to separate out that data. there's some, you know, administrators i talked to who say, you know, i was up for retirement in the next two to three years, and i just decided to do it now. sometimes even a retirement is related to all of these other things. i spoke with one administrator who knew down to the day that she gets to retire. she's counting down that

closely. it's all mixed together, and that's one of the really important things to remember here. this was a system that wasn't already functioning, you know, at full speed. in 2000 we had a crisis, and we really invested in elections and had this huge infusion of cash that allowed election administrators to upgrade their technology, reform the way we did elections. but since then they have sort of atrophied. they have been treated adds an after thought by the city and county governments that fund elections. administrators are sort of already running a little threadbare. many do multiple jobs. they did it because they loved elections. then you add in these information requests that were compared to me by some of the experts a distributed denial of services act, you're overwhelming the small offices with requests they're legally obligated to fulfill. they don't have the staff to do

it. they're worried about dropping a ball. adding in angry voters, and i was struck by how many administrators i spoke with that haven't been directly harassed but because they know what their colleagues around the country are going through, they feel it anyway, just knowing that their profession is under assault. one spoke with me. she said it's only a matter of time until it comes here. they're feeling all of these things at once, and that is what's contributing to this really high turnover. >> i spent time with an election official down in georgia who had been threatened. she had a bomb threat, her husband was so worried about it, he got up with her at 3:00 in the morning on election day to go to the special election there because they were taking it very seriously. they had the fbi in their offices and she was just trying to do her job. you can imagine that kind of story gets spread around, people hear it and wonder whether it's worth doing. i was interested whether -- you spoke about how you did look at battle ground states but also states that are not battleground states. did you see in battleground

states it is worse. some states we've heard about, arizona, for example, are some states losing election workers at higher rate than others? >> interestingly, of the states we went hand by hand and checked every name, the highest was utah. utah after 2020 over half of their administrators left, so you know, south carolina had a very high rate. another state that's one of the names we all know, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, arizona, georgia, those are the sort of it states coming out of 2020. they did have high rates of turnover. it wasn't isolated to them. we looked at massachusetts where our paper is headquartered, even in what's considered a very blue state, we saw not quite as high rates of turnover but measurably higher than before, and you know, i talked to clerks in massachusetts, and one of the interesting things i learned,

it's not just the harassment. it's the intensity of the focus on elections and coming out of 2020, laws that were well intended to expand mail-in ballot access, most of those laws didn't come with additional funding. election administrators when they get a new law, they're not thinking how will this affect my political future like maybe the people who wrote it will. voters say this gives me other ways to vote. how am i going to implement this? some are coming down in election years. again, all of this combined, they feel under appreciated to begin with, so misunderstood, then you throw in the prospect of having your own family or life threatened. many are saying no thanks, it's not worth it. >> it is an important story. i guess the question is if all of these people are leaving for the reasons you laid out, what's the effort to bring in new workers? is there another generation, a recruiting effort to get people to do this job, which, as you

say, now could come with death threats or crazy people knocking on your door or rudy giuliani accusing you of doing something in a video you don't do and all of this scrutiny and stress into your life, how do you bring new people into the system? >> it's really difficult is the answer. traditionally, the way people end up in the top job administering elections, a lot of them start out at a poll worker. they volunteer or get paid a nominal amount to work on election day, they fall in love getting to work with their community, become fascinated by the process, work their way up. it's hard to recruit poll workers these days. the pipeline is suffering. i did meet young election administrators as i traveled around, there are some coming in, and the ones that are staying feel passionately that they are holding the line on democracy. they feel it's so important to

do this, but, you know, the concern is, one, this sort of collective brain drain i mentioned. if you do bring in younger people, you don't have these 20, 30 year veterans of election administration to educate them and help them avoid mistakes, and yo two as i mentioned mistakes, there are harmless unintentional mistakes that can be made in the election process. it's unbelievable the amount of planning that has to go into it. i talked to several who said you have to get it perfectly right on the day of the election. if you don't, the consequences are disastrous. so little innocuous mistakes, my colleague went where there was a programming error that made it look like votes were going to one person when they should have been going to the others. it was fixed. but it became so huge in terms

of a flash point. it was something trump and his allies seized in, it got blown ouch proportion. all of the election administrators live in fear of something like that happening to them. when you have all of these inexperienced new election administrators trying to do this for the first time, knowing these mistakes get magnified, being spread so thin, they are concerned that wouchbtone of those mistakes can happen. tal kopan, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. we appreciate it. still ahead on "morning joe," what police are saying about a break-in at the campaign headquarters of katie hobbs, the democratic candidate for governor of arizona. plus, president biden, and cabinet officials will be fanning out across the country in an effort to drive home the

administration's economic accomplishments. we'll speak with white house chief of staff ron klain about the party's closing message to voters ahead of the midterms. also ahead more than half of the u.s. population is millennial or younger meaning young voters are potentially the make or break demographic for the midterms if they show up to vote. even if they even know about the midterms. we'll take a closer look at that straight ahead on "morning joe." t straight ahead on "morning joe." the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles?

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miami herald reports the gop is gaining ground in miami-dade county due to local hispanic outreach. one example is the party's sponsoring of naturalization clinics for immigrants. the outreach appears to be working and could possibly make ron desantis the first to win the county since 2002. and a record number of lgbtq candidates running for office nationwide this election cycle. 1,000 ran in primaries and 678 advanced to the general election. it marks the first time ever that all 50 states will have an lgbtq candidate on the ballot. the record comes amid a rise of anti-lgbtq laws introduced in legislatures nationwide. to wisconsin now, where the milwaukee journal sentinel reports a jury convicted darrell brooks jr. of driving his car through a christmas parade last

year, killing six and injuring dozens more. the jury deliberated for roughly 90 minutes before delivering all guilty verdicts on the 76 charges including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide. brooks jr. chose to represent himself in the four-week long trial. often being disruptive during the proceedings. a hearing is scheduled for monday to determine a sentencing date. and in new jersey, ”the star-ledger” reports that democratic senator bob menendez is being scrutinized by federal authorities. menendez was the target of two prior corruption probes with one being quietly dropped and the other dismissed following a high profile trial. the subject of the new investigation is not yet known and a representative for the senator said he will cooperate with authorities.

and coming up on "morning joe," an update on the subpoena of donald trump from the january 6th committee. and a conviction in the kidnapping plot of the governor of michigan. we're back in just a moment. r of michigan. we're back in just a moment. before we begin, i'd like to thank our sponsor, liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. and by switching, you could even save $652. thank you, liberty mutual. now, contestants ready? go! why? why? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪

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35 past the hour as the midterms approach, many of the nation's youngest voters are gearing up to hit the polls but there is still concern over how many gen zer's will show up at the ballot box. "morning joe" reporter, daniela pierre bravo has been speaking with voters about what issues are important to them, and will they show up. she joins us now. what did you hear? >> hey, good morning, mika. in arizona, latinas make up 30%

of the population, and 40,000 young latinos become eligible to vote each year. we traveled to tucson, arizona, to talk to young voters about the upcoming midterms and what's motivating them to get out and vote. >> the top three has been immigration, preproductive rights and climate change. >> it's hard pick the number one issue, being college students and the rises costs of everything around us, climate change, inflation, and affordable education. >> you're planning on voting in the midterms. i'll be voting for democrats all down the ballot. >> you're a strong democrat. >> i'm a strong democrat, and it was strengthened after january 6th. my number one issue is the strength of our democracy. >> what do democrats need to be doing better to reach out not only to just your generation but your community of family and friends that are latino. >> i think there's a lot of promises. we get a lot of promises. we're going to do this, do that, enact this, and you vote, and

they're there, and it doesn't happen. i'm still a democrat. my views haven't changed but it's disheartening to know we have put you there, to represent us, we've trusted you, and it still feels like we're in the same rut as before. >> i sometimes feel like the democrat party is a branding. if i represent myself as a democrat, i'm going to get the minority vote or more people's votes because i'm a democrat. but i don't think that necessarily means that they are doing enough to prioritize and work on issues that are important to minority communities. >> i'm wondering has anybody reached out to you, anybody's campaign to talk to you and get you involved and get you excited about voting? >> that is so crazy that you mentioned that because i probably get about five texts a day that are about political campaigns. and actually i get more republican texts than i do democrat texts. >> i get a lot of republican texts. it doesn't work on me, but works on my parents, grandparents.

>> i get more ads and texts and information about conservatives than i do about democrats. >> i think for me personally, it's like we have the kind of vote that speaks for other people. daca recipients here, proposition 308 they don't get to vote on that. >> your vote is not just for you, but other people in your community. >> i think so. >> i have a lot of family who can't vote. i feel like they kind of lean on me to say like, you're 18 now, make sure you're voting, make sure you're getting out there and going for what you believe in. >> can host latinx, get out the vote canvass and have hispanic heritage events, if we're not acting boldly on policies that are going to impact our lives, none of it matters. >> the dobbs decision is something that was important for you, motivated you to get out and vote. >> it made me realize that the impact a lot of smaller elections have on really large decisions. >> we have gone so many years with having it. my mother had, grandmother had

it, i don't get to have it, i don't think anyone besides myself tells me when, where and how to reproduce. >> you're going to hear an uproar from our generation. >> at the time i was pregnant, and just to think if something had gone wrong in my pregnancy, there would have been a decision to terminate my pregnancy, i wouldn't have wanted it but it would have been medically necessary, i would have chose to go with medically necessary, just because that's me. and like it's me, my body. i feel like having roe v. wade overturned, that's just like cutting off our voices. >> if they like do that to us now, it's like, we can do something else again. >> they could get away with attacking other rights. >> yes, yes. >> for instance, our voting right or, just other rights in general. >> do you guys still believe in the american dream? >> i believe deep down it's there, but it's out of reach for

so many folks. >> do you feel like it's out of reach for you? >> at this point in time, yes. overall the state of politics, these voters are voting for that. that is what's fueling them to get out and vote. one thing to note about the young latino voters is the responsibility they feel on behalf of friends and family who can't vote, so nonresidents and undocumented family members and friends who are daca recipients, which makes the section of latino voters unique. and the generational differences, all voters identified as democrats but express they don't always match up with their family's views, and many mentioned not feeling a strong loyalty to their party as much as looking for a candidate on either side that would champion issues important to them. economy, reproduction rights, and climate change being the top three. >> all right. "morning joe" reporter, daniela

pierre bravo. thank you very much. and willie, i'm hopeful, excited worried about election day. in terms of exit polling on the issue of abortion and whether there will be turnout that a lot of people are telling me privately, that's what they're voting on. who knows. >> generation z is going to have a lot to say. let's continue this conversation. out with new numbers on young voters just this morning. john is an msnbc contributor and author of the book "fight, how gen z is channelling their fear and passion to save america" a lot of nodding as you listen to daniela's piece. what did you hear that rang true? >> an incredible job with the young people from arizona, and i guess a couple of things rang true. one of them is fight. we talked about how this generation, not sure that the american dream can be there for them, but it's their duty and

the responsibility to vote, not just for themselves, but as daniela pointed at the end, for those even more vulnerable than themselves. and i think that's an incredibly important element about this. listen, willie, i'm not sure whether we're going to see a red wave or blue wave in a couple of weeks. i'm positive we will see a gen z wave, especially in the battleground states, and i think that came up loud and clear from daniela's piece. >> the polls out this morning that show extraordinary numbers of gen z voters who will turn out in the midterms. what did you find? >> can i take a step back for a second here, right, because we've had a lot of conversations in the past about will young people, okay. if you are a betting person and over the last 40 years you bet young people won't turn out in significant numbers and those young people were baby boomers in the 80s. gen xors, you will have been

right more than wrong. in 2008, we have seen a doubling of participation among young people. we went from a time when about 17 to 20%, to now 35%, and this poll is tracking at the exact same level of 2018, which was historic and record breaking, and it's even higher in battleground states. >> so 40% of 18 to 29-year-olds in your new poll say they definitely will vote in the midterm elections. coming up 12 days from now. how does that relate to the last midterm elections and looking back historically. >> historically, the number that would tell us in the surveys, mid-20s, 24, 25%, of which 20 or 21% would turn out. the fact that we're at 40% and higher in battleground states shows that i expect turn out among the 18 to 29-year-old cohort to be in the mid-30s. and that's enough. it was enough in 2018, willie, to turn ten seats from red to

blue in the house. and when we look at states like pennsylvania, north carolina, arizona, georgia, et cetera, the combination of gen z and millennials, in some cases, 2/3 prefer the democrat. the degree to which these campaigns can mobilize young people of both of these generations, it literally can make the difference between who holds control. that was the case in 2020. biden is not president without young people. >> the number if you look inside your poll of young voters, goes up in battleground states, the races are tight, 45% there. another number here, the generic ballot about which party should control congress. you found 57% of gen z say they support democrat, 31% republicans. does that surprise you at all? >> it doesn't necessarily surprise me. in the spring survey, willie, which was done obviously before the dobbs decision and before the legislative and executive

accomplishments of democrats this summer, we have seen this five-point increase. democrats were up 21 in the spring, up 26 now. what's telling, though, is the intensity among two specific groups, young women under 30, as well as college students. so we can certainly see the effect of the dobbs decision in these numbers in terms of the intensity. let's talk about civil rights, concern for individual rights as we put up the number here, 72% of those you polled are concerned about lgbtq rights, 63% of women, 55% of men. if you put that graphic up. take a look. >> it's actually a little bit, i think, deeper than this. we find that overall, 79% of 18 to 29-year-olds, willie, are concerned about the rights of americans. and 59% are concerned about losing their individual rights. those who are most concerned about losing their individual

rights are of course women, but lgbtq community members. this is something that was on the minds of younger people well before dobbs. in a poll that i did earlier this year in january, we found that concern about losing rights in this country was always paramount across ideologies. so we look at top issues broadly, it's been the economy, as we have been talking about, among all voters, if we look at youth voters, it is inflation, it is the economy, but particularly among democrats, climate change, abortion, protecting democracy, all right there as well. >> right, when you look at essentially the top six issues, number one is inflation and the economy, that's clear, and that clearly would aid -- seem to aid republicans right now. but issues 2, 3, 4 and 5 aid democrats, protecting democracy. we heard in daniela's piece, climate, gun violence, control, and of course protecting a woman's right to her body

autonomy. you also found the youth -- this is interesting on joe biden, the approval number, 39%, hasn't really moved much. even since this spring. 58% disapprove. what do you read into the number. >> it's a disconnect. we tested his overall approval rating on several issues. there's a disconnect between what young people think of him and his policies. his strong support for bipartisan gun legislation by climate action, of course relieving student debt for 45 million americans, specifically those people of color. so there's this disconnect between legislative accomplishments, and approval ratings. it has to be better communicated across the campaign trail. >> the headline, 40% of gen z voters say they will be out in 12 days. thanks as always for bringing us the new numbers. we appreciate it. mika. still ahead, we're looking at the major developments in two

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if any suspects involved but the police say they are currently reviewing security camera footage. hobbs' campaign manager released a statement condemning the break in and reads, quote, the threats against arizonans attempting to exercise their constitutional rights and their attacks on elected officials are the direct result of a concerted campaign of lies and intimidation." and in michigan, a jury has found three men guilty of aiding in a 2020 plot to kidnap michigan governor gretchen whitmer. they were convicted of all charges yesterday including providing material support for terrorist acts, possessing a firearm while committing a felony, and being members of a gang. they now face up to 20 years in prison. more than a dozen people have

been arrested in connection with the plot to kidnap whitmer which prosecutors say was fueled by anti-government extremism and anger over covid restrictions. the case has deepened fears about the spread of potential violence directed at politicians. meanwhile, whitmer who is running for re-election in november responded to the verdict calling it further proof that violence and threats have no place in our politics. willie? >> with less than two weeks nm the midterm elections, political campaigns are working to reach voters from every demographic. there is one outreach program that has been expanding across the country. it's one you probably never noticed, never even heard of. they're called minority outreach centers. nbc news correspondent morgan radford is doing digging into just how widespread they have become. morgan, good morning. >> good morning. that's right. they're widespread. very inconspicuous. this is a multimillion dollar

project led by republican national committee. and that money isn't just going to tv ads or social media. it's also going to these physical outreach centers where people can actually go in person. and it's all part of the republican party's big picture strategy to reach minority voters, a strategy they say is working and will lead to big surprises at the polls. >> reporter: here outside of atlanta, david martinez is all dressed up for a neighborhood event. but the organizer for the local get together isn't a person, it's actually the republican national committee. so were you always involved in politics? >> no. i was never involved in politics. until recently. >> reporter: so you are saying this is the creation of the center inspired you to get more involved in politics? >> yes, it did. >> reporter: this is the hispanic outreach center. one of 37 minority outreach senters that the rnc opened across the country in the last year and a half. focused on black, asian and native-american voters along with 21 locations geared toward

hispanic voters alone. courting them with free movie nights and citizenship classes. >> we're engaging with diverse communities more than ever. >> reporter: it's part of a multimillion dollar strategy by the rnc to shift the margins among nonwhite voters just enough. why did you all decide as a party to invest in these brick-and-mortar sites instead of putting that money in ads and social immediate yashgs television, radio? >> because we have done. that and we're not refraining from doing what we dshgs we're doing something additional. >> reporter: as it's a plan that rnc says is working. 14% swing towards republicans since the 2020 election. with a similar shift to the right among black voters. i'm kari lake, i will issue a declaration of invasion. >> reporter: this while republican candidates across the country focus on the border and immigration as central campaign

issues. >> we've seen dozens of ads and interviews from republican candidates calling southern border crossers, for example, an invasion. are these centers enough to counter that type of rhetoric? >> okay. that rhetoric is wrong. we're not against immigration. it's not that we hate the other people on the other side of the border. we love people on this side of the border and we need to protect them. >> the fascinating thing is how inconspicuous they are. at the shopping mall, there is a beauty salon, a dentist office and urgent care clinic and that low profile that has strategists concerned. >> does it make me feel good that they're doing it? no. is it going to be super effective? i hope not. it still is worry so many for democrats to see republicans showing up in neighborhood that's used to be safely ours. >> a strategy martinez says he hopes will continue through election day. >> it is working? have you seen more people come through the doors? fewer people come to the events? >> i have seen more people come through.

they want to see change. >> all right. so we do want to make clear the polling shift to the right cannot be directly attributed to any one thing. but republicans do believe that these centers are a key element. we also reached out to the democratic national committee who acknowledged that they have not chosen to invest in these particular kinds of community centers. but instead, they point to a seven figure investment in spanish language ads and similar level of spending on messaging towards black voters in print and on the radio. they also pointed to decades worth of voter outreach programs for both communities adding in part in a statement the rnc's community centers will not be enough to hide the republican party's extreme plans to ban abortion, make health care more expensive and gift corporations and ultra wealthy tax give aways. a sign that really neither side is leaving anything to chance when it comes to reaching the voters. >> so fascinating. i don't think people are not aware what is going on. we had danielle's piece a few minutes ago and talking to young voters who said i get five, six

texts a day from republicans. i've not seen those from democrats. >> that's what they say. the republicans ground game is strong. they just haven't received the same level of outreach from democrats. >> thank you so much. still ahead here, president biden preparing to barnstorm the country as his administration attempts to sell its economic accomplishmentes about it with just 12 days to go until election day. white house chief of staff ron klain will be our guest. in 24 hours, elon musk is set to take control of twitter. overnight the doj announced it is investigating his main company, tesla. cnbc will be here on those two developments. here on those two developments hey! that's mine. i'll buy you a pony. advanced hydration isn't just for kids. pedialyte helps you hydrate during recovery.

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everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting. just look around. this digital age we're living in, it's pretty unbelievable. problem is, not everyone's fully living in it. nobody should have to take a class or fill out a medical form on public wifi with a screen the size of your hand. home internet shouldn't be a luxury. everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting. live look at the white house. it's the top of the third hour of "morning joe." a beautiful day in washington, d.c., as you can see. look at the leaves.

it's thursday, october 27th. joe is off today. jonathan lemire is still us with. with 12 days to go until the midterm elections, we're following big developmentes in two of the nation's most closely watched senate races. nbc's hallie jackson has the latest. >> reporter: with less than two weeks to go this morning, the future of the senate could hang on two key states with neck and neck races in pennsylvania and georgia. there is now another twist. republican herschel walker whose campaigned on anti-abortion platform now denying a new allegation from a second woman who says walker pressured her to have an abortion in the early '90s. >> what i'm saying this is a lie. i've said it once. i moved on with my campaign. >> reporter: the anonymous woman came forward in a press conference arranged by gloria alred. she said after she became pregnant in 1993, walker encouraged her to have an abortion adding she first couldn't go through with the

procedure but that walker encouraged her to go back, driving her to a dallas clinic where she had the abortion. the woman explaining why she speaking up now. >> i am a registered undependent and i voted for donald trump in both elections. i do not believe that herschel is morally fit to be a u.s. senator. >> reporter: nbc news has not verified the allegations and she did not provide evidence walker was involved in her abortion. >> i'm done with this foolishness. >> reporter: the republican candidate and former football star also denied allegations earlier this month from another former girlfriend who says walker paid for her abortion in 2009. in a statement, the campaign for walker's opponent, warnock, says walker has a problem with the truth, a problem answering questions and taking responsibility for his actions. that matchup very close with recent polling showing warnock leading by five points. in another closely watched race in pennsylvania, a tossup with polls ranking democratic lieutenant governor john fetterman and republican

candidate dr. oz within the margin of error. >> doing the debate wasn't exactly easy. i knew it wasn't going to be easy after having a stroke after five months. >> fetterman appearing in a campaign rally after raising $2 million his team says in the hours after his one and only debate debate against oz. he faced questions about his at times halting debate performance with lingering auto torre processing issues after a stroke five months ago. oz also on the campaign trail hammering the issue of crime and on defense against a new democratic ad highlighting his debate comments on abortion. >> this is who dr. oz wants in charge of women's health care decisions. >> i want women, doctors, local political leaders. >> all right. nbc's hallie jackson with that report. joining us now we have democratic senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. he is author of the book "the

scheme." how they used dark money to capture the supreme court and we'll get to that in just a moment. congratulations on the book, senator. i want to talk to you about the mid terms. and i'm curious, as we look at pennsylvania and we look at georgia, we have two republican candidates who, to say the very, very least, have had trouble telling the truth over the years. i mean that's the fairest most sum am terms. but we could go deeper into the problems with the republican candidates. the my question to you is why are the democrats not doing better? is it the cant dates or the message? i would say it's neither. i would direct your attention to the recent npr story. they're about to hit $1 billion in dark money spending for their

benefit. that if it weren't for this dark money spending, they would be swamped on the airwaves. it is nearly 90% of the funding supporting that. and my personal feeling, i'm a bit of an outrider on this i think we missed a huge, huge opportunity with voters who are sick of the dark money, sick of the corporate influence and not being listened to to draw the connection between a billion dollars to republican senate candidates and what mitch mcconnell is likely to do hiding behind the dark money. >> you think it's just dark money? the two race that's i'm using examples, the candidates could not be more -- they could not be more of a contrast between the candidates. and, yet, they're so tight. >> there are smears on the tv screens of the anxious

population. i think that gives them an enormous advantage. i you this we would be in a completely different position if it weren't for a bouillon billion dollars worth of dark spending. they should be careful what they're giving up to get that billion dollars:there are deals behind that billion dollars. we ought to know what the deals are. >> we're going to talk more about that in your book, senator. but to mika's point, you agree that inflation is not the result of the billion dollars of dark money. what is the message from democrats right now in these last 12 days for people who say far and away the economy inflation are the number one thing on my mind? >> i think we go to the record of what we've actual will you done to lower costs for consumers and point out that fuel costs, drug costs, and fair taxation are all democratic priorities and the republicans

are not going to do a thing about it. a republican party funded by the the fossil fuel energy is never going to take that away. and we've seen them dump two trillion dollars in high end tax relief for billionaires and big corporations. so the idea can you trust them with the problems to solve the problems that they point out i think is pretty well ludicrous in terms of what the record shows. >> senator, good morning. one of the other major issues for voters mind per polling is threats to democracy. it's behind the economic issues that we were just discussing. but certainly something in the aftermath of january 6, the hearings we saw all summer, something that people are concerned about. what is this closing argument and the stretch of the campaign, what in particular on that do democrats need to say to voters

to say, look, if you put the other guys in charge, this whole thing could come crashing down. >> this anonymous money has gone into our politics like a tsunami of slime and what that is doing to the ability of ordinary voters to be heard. again, they're probably only four, five, six interests that are behind that billion dollars in spending for republican senate candidates. and they will have demands of mitch mcconnell. he is going to listen to people that are willing to put a billion dollars on the line to push his message forward. >> tell us what "the scheme" is. what exactly can be done

? is this corruption? is it criminal? explain it. >> it's for sure corruption. i first noticed it when looking at why republicans have all evaporated on climate change. when i got, there they were working on climate change. as soon as the dark money flowed, they all stopped. you couldn't get a republican near a climate bill. and so i began to look at that apparatus that was pushing climate denial, the dark money apparatus. then gain to see that a lot of the same groups backing the republicans, just like we described in the billion dollars in this election for the republican senate candidates. and then as i looked at the supreme court, i began to see the same groups showing up there in the effort to pack ain't mach sure that garland didn't get on

the court. and all of the machinations we had to live through as they rabb the judges through senate precedence and traditions and rules. so this book is about the way that the dark money effort that apparatus over time and with over half a billion dollars actually has packed the supreme court, captured it the way the old railroad baron was have captured a 19th century railroad commission. >> the new book is "the scheme: how the right-wing used dark money to capture the supreme court." senator sheldon, thank you very much. we have other news to get to. a source tells nbc news that attorneys for former president donald trump agree to formally receive the subpoena issued you about the january 6 house select committee. but that doesn't mean that he

agreed to appear before the committee. the subpoena calls for trump to testify at the capitol or video coverage on the morning of november 14th. trump was given until november 4 toj give documents and communications he had regarding extremist groups that played a role in the capitol riot and any attempts in the past year to contact witnesses, testifying before the committee. >> putin reportedly supervised a military exercise yesterday. it simulated what the kremlin calls a massive nuclear strike. the annual drill was meant to test the level of preparedness for a nuclear attack on its own soil. moscow says all the ballistic and cruise missiles reached the intended targets. nato carries out their own nuclear exercise. the white house says russia provided advance notice of those

drills. meanwhile in u ran. millions marched to the cemetery where a young woman's grave is located. the 40th day she died in the custody of the morality police after refusing to comply with the strict dress code. nbc's chief international correspondent has more. >> reporter: a powerful image, seen around the world. a young woman not wearing a head scarf stands on the roof of a car, hands in the air, as crowds attempt to reach the grave of the young woman and near the cemetery, this video from a human rights organization capturing the resistance is glorious. huge numbers across iran determined to mourn and to protest the death of the 22-year-old. marking 40 days after she died in the hospital. the morality police targeting her for allegedly vie lawsuiting the country's strict clothing code. in the capital, tehran, clashes

with the security forces and the sound of gunfire. in a hotel, they shouted women, life, freedom. and these demonstrators daring chants freedom, freedom. and then images like this one. smoke rising, told of another violent crackdown there. reports say live rounds were used and tear gas. the eye rain yn authorities switching off unt net in the city. but a news agency reporting at least 10,000 demonstrated. thousands of miles away, the white house announcing sanctions targeting more than a dozen iranian officials. >> our message to iran is very, very clear. stop killing your people and stop sending weapons to russia to kill ukrainians. >> reporter: a dramatic change from easterly you they are year when the biden administration is

truing to negotiate a deal. there is no sign of compromise in tehran and no backing down by the young fee maul protesters and many men out on the streets in support. >> keir simmons reporting there. jonathan, first we cannot overstate the courage of the young people stepping out in the streets at great risk from the iranian government. we heard from the white house there. really changing its tune just a little bit. saying stop what you're doing, iran. stop killing your own people and accusing them of arming russia and the fight against ukraine. where does this go between the relationship between the united states and iran? >> the language really stranged in a striking fashion. this is not the only warning the would you say issued. i was in the briefing room whp he was joined by nfc coordinator john kirby. they alleged that it's not just iran sending drones to russia to help with the war in ukraine, but that russia is helping iran

put down those protests. they sent officials to tehran. russian officials to tehran, to talk about crowd control. to talk about protests and crack down on dissent. something we rarely see in iran. it happens from time to time in russia. we know what putin does. he stamps it out. there is a coordination there on multiple fronts which, of course, only makes iran more of a pariah in the united states' eyes. the talks have been put asued and they're turning up condemnation. >> wow. all right. still ahead on "morning joe," more on the new allegations against georgia republican senate candidate herschel walker. another woman has come forward claiming he pressured her into having an abortion. we'll speak with the reporter from the atlantic journal constitution about this development. plus, white house chief of staff ron klain will join us as president biden and cabinet officials get ready to fan out across the country to deliver

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this morning we have a new allegation against herschel walker to report. another woman has come forward accusing the georgia republican senate candidate of pressuring her into having an abortion. the woman appeared anonymously yesterday with her lawyer, glo area allred. she became involved with the former football player in 1987 while still married. and became pregnant with his child back in 1993. she says he encouraged her several times to have an abortion and she eventually went to a clinic dallas to have the procedure but didn't go through with it which she alleges made

walker upset. she claimed she then -- he then drove her to the clinic and waited outside in the parking lot for hours until she came back out. here's what she had to say about why coming forward now. >> herschel walker says he is against women having abortions. but he pressured me to have one. i am coming forward now because you saw herschel deny the allegations by another woman who claimed that he had paid for the abortion and particularly i saw him state that the woman's claims were not true because he never signed any cards using the letter h. i knew that was not true. because he had often signed letters to me using h.

for anyone who believes i'm coming forward because herschel is running as a republican candidate, that is simply not the case. i am a registered independent. and i voted for donald trump in both elections. i do not believe that herschel is morally fit to be a u.s. senator and that's that is the reason why i am speaking up. >> during yesterday's news conference, the woman's lawyer showed cards, photographs, and receipts that she said supported her client's story. walker was out campaigning with south carolina senator lindsey graham when he responded to the new allegations. >> i'm done with this foolishness. i'm already told people this. this is a lie that i'm not going to entertain and continue to

carry a lie along. i also want to let you know i didn't kill jfk either. and right now they say after he got crushed at that debate now the democrats are saying whatever they can to win this seat. but i want them to know, they don't know herschel walker. >> walker also denied an allegation from another woman who says he paid for her abortion. nbc news has not independently verified this latest allegation. and willie, just looking at this race overall, i mean, first of all, this candidate is a proven liar. his own children, one of his adult churn has come out and said he is a proven lure. and backs the claims he ran around the state with many women rather than parenting him. this is ultimately up to the georgia voters if this is what they think is the candidate of their courthouse. but it shows where we are in politics. that a candidate like this

cannot only survive but thrive. >> despite all of the allegations and despite the threats he made against his ex-wife and national party stands behind him. this is a seat they need. so they're willing to look the the other way on all of these volumes of allegations against him. let's bring in our political reporter for the atlanta journal constitution. greg, its good to see you this morning. so is this now baked into this race another allegation against herschel walker? doesn't really seem to hurt him among republicans anyway. he's neck and neck with warnock. what impact is all of this having on walker? >> yeah. this is a race that is likely to go to a december runoff. this is a wash for the news cycle. walker denies it as a lie or doesn't address it at all. the national republicans, they rally to his side. it's a very important development in georgia. will it affect the race?

even democrats highly doubt that possibility. as one elected official text me last neutral if, the first report says that he pressured a gouf to get an abortion why would a second? >> so what will decide this race in the end? you say we're likely to go into december on this on a runoff. what are independents looking at? economy, inflation, or what is it in every other race? >> it is the economy. that is such an important question. there are three blocks of republican voters. republican voters who don't believe any of the reports. don't care about them. the second block of republican voters that believe them but think that republican control of the senate trumps everything else. and then there is that third narrow block of voters, swing voters who usually vote gop. but they're very concerned and they're showing that they're either going to vote for senator warnock, libertarian or xup this race altogether. that's the band of voters that

could decide this race. that's the reason why we are looking at a possible runoff in december. >> all right. it's hard not to turn away from this ever evolving story with herschel walker and his problems with the truth. potentially pushed several to get abortions and maybe even paid for them. we'll put that to one side. that's the republican's choice for the candidate. i'm with jamal hill, it's so condescending to african americans and women. but now let's look at the democrats. and why isn't warnock doing better? >> yeah. i mean, warnock is a candidate you would think especially up against herschel walker would be the ideal candidate, right?

he actually is a pastor. he has had won one race before in georgia. he proved himself in the senate for two years. he's been part of a huge stimulus package. he is not mentioning that stimulus package at all now on the cam pawn trail. he didn't seem luke in the debate to take the fight to him very much. maybe he felt that his job as a pastor made it hard for him to attack somebody else on moral grounds. but i think there is some rethinking now among democrats could he have gone hotter after walker in the course of the debates. when you look at voters in georgia at the moment, and you think of particularly suburban women voters around atlanta and you weigh these two candidates and throw in the issue of dobbs and abortion, you would think that warnock would be the ideal candidate as opposed to her shall walker. but it's not clear from the

polling that he's far ahead on this. >> no, not at all. it's a neck and neck rates. and senator warnock frames himself as a pro-choice pastor. the real reason or at least the number one reason i you this that this is such a tight race is joe biden is he is a 38% approval rating here in georgia. republicans can continue toway him down. and that is a factor in this race. senator warnock is running far ahead of stacy abrams. it's a neck and neck race in the senate contest. one yn that is because senator warnock continues to hold joe biden at arm's length. he is trying to appeal to the middle of the electorate. he feels that tying himself to president biden, even saying he wants president bide tone run for re-election would be damaging to that.

so he won't answer that question on the campaign trail. and he continues to go -- he talks more about working with ted cruz and tommy tuberville than working with joe biden. that is a clear aim for the middle of the electorate. >> still ahead on monday, we highlighted five sleep erase that's could see surprises on election night. high on that list, the fight for u.s. senate in utah. we'll speak with independent candidate evan mcmullan who is challenging mike lee there. morning joe is back in a moment. e morning joe is back in a moment.

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>> with less than two weeks before the midterm elections, the biden administration is going all out to push its closing message on the economy starting with the president himself who will be in syracuse, new york, today. and administration officials has

biden's major economic speech will be reinforced by more than half a dozen other administration officials who will also hold economic focused events today including a major economic address in ohio from treasury secretary janet yellen. by tomorrow, officials will have made 77 trips to 29 states just this month with more already planned. willie? >> most of those trips are focused on the economy and on inflation with the president planning to shine a bright light on what he calls republicans mega maga trickle down economic policies. senior administration officials are framing the republican priorities as a five part plan that includes extending the trump tax cuts, also repealing tax reforms and the prescription drug reform plan in the inflation reduction act. the other bullet points opposing the laws improvements on the affordable care act policies and

inflation reduction act. and suing to stop president biden's student loan relief plan. he says the president's policies create an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. john this clearly is a concerted effort and admission that this is the message that should have had all along. abortion is important. democracy is important. all of those things are on the radar. >> it's going to be the president's message today, upstate new york. also as his -- relatively limited campaign appearances going forward. as you say, threats of democracy important. abortion rights, of course important. and the administration does want to be able to tout what it and democrats in congress accomplished over the summer. that is quite a bit. it seems the final plot twist in the mid terms is about the

economy and the white house is trying to focus on that now. it is interesting. it's to focus on the chips in manufacturing in the state. and also to give a boost to the new york governor in a surprisingly close race. the president will said to pennsylvania tomorrow. he'll be in pennsylvania a lot in the next week or so. not too many other places. the white house knows that biden's poll numbers are not that high. a lot of campaigns are not that eager to have him join their candidates at events. he is not getting out to arizona. he is not getting out to nevada. at least for now. nothing in michigan or wisconsin. he's going to focus on pennsylvania. he's going to raise as much money as he k big picture to deliver a closing argument for the party. a party growing nervous here. the house is going to be hard to keep i think most democrats acknowledge that. but the senate, 50/50. so much of it is going to come

down to a trio of states, nevada, georgia as we've been discussing and, of course, pennsylvania. >> this is a really tough slog. and senator bernie sanders even is hitting the campaign traul to trail to get out the vote. he has 15 scheduled appearance officials the next two weekends heading to key swing states to help drive turnout and excitement among young people and working class voters. the senator's tour starts today in oregon and california. then moves east to key states like wisconsin and pennsylvania. and you've been traveling across the country, actually, for your bbc special on trump's america. i'm curious, is it possible at this time for the democrats to be able to have a message that does two things at once? that talks about the republicans and abortion and their sort of inhumane policies versus -- and taking your rights away versus

touting the legislative wins that could help the economy but not exactly right now. because a lot of legislation and policies takes time to deliver. this is a tough one. >> yeah. i think you laid that out well. they pass that massive rescue package after covid. and they really hoped in the white house that this was going to be the package of measures that would help them in the mid terms that, would help keep the house and the senate. then, of course, the $1400 checks paid directly to people, the $300 a month child tax credit which then sunseted and a big boost at the time is absolutely nowhere on the trail in democratic ads. they're just not talking about it. and them getting hammered by republicans and inflation. the one economic message they felt they had they can't talk about.

then the economic policies in there are delivering benefits until potentially the beginning of next year. it is an economic bind. about it with some 18% of the population saying that economy is their most important voting issue. the democrats are right. they have to start talking about this and you're right. they probably should be doing this earlier. they have to do two things at once. they have to work to working class and middle class voters about issues like the economy. the issue he associated with and trying to gin up support among those people to get out and vote. >> as john says, the president of the united states never thought in the final stretch of his campaign to defend the sitting governor there. they're pouring in monday by double digits. donald trump has announced a series of rallies in the lead-up to election day. one week from today, trump will

be in sioux city, iowa, with kim reynolds and chuck grassley who find himself in a closer than expected race against democratic candidate mike franken. on saturday, november 5, just before election day, trump travels to pennsylvania for a rally with republican gubernatorial candidate doug mastriano and dr. oz. then the former president will travel to florida for a rally with senator marco rubio. but one notable absence, governor ron desantis mentioning the rally. then the former president is in ohio for a rally with j.d. vance. so back to the florida event. they report some allies are angry that donald trump scheduled a rally in florida two days before election day. for marco rubio, a long time republican consultant who was close to the governor tells "politico" you have the sunday before election day totally hijacked by trump parachuting in

on trump force one taking up the whole day. no republican can go to a disdee desantis event that day. this is big. another person influential blamed trump advisors saying this is an elbow to ron's throat. adviser to trump denies any conflict between desantis and his constituent the former president who could be rivals for the next republican presidential nomination. a lull intrigue there. he doesn't love the national attention that desantis is getting. flirtations with running in 2024, something donald trump, of course would like to do too. >> this is fun. trump for a lodge time now said he feels that desantis, he said this privately to people around him, that he doesn't feel like he is grateful.

and he feels that desantis is not putting his hat in the ring. he has done that like others. he said, yeah, i'm considering a white house run. but i'll stop if trump jumps in. desantis is not doing that. desantis started the trend. a few others including mike pence doing the same. this is interesting. florida has trended republican in recent cycles. still a battleground. but sort of a light red at this moment. it's a key state clear will you in 2024. you know, rubio does have a race there that is competitive. it would be sort of seen as a long shot for democrats. desantis is going to cruise to victory it seems and trump is there putting his thumb on the scale, picking one over the other. and i think this is going to be a decision, this relationship between desantis and trump is going to be one that is so closely watch in the months ahead as both men do eye 2024. >> coming up, live to the white house. president biden's chief of staff

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some women get the chills afterward but it passes quickly. >> this is for your cramps. >> thank you. >> it gets worse. >> so which one of you is jane? >> we're all jane. >> virginia started it. help yourself. >> you didn't mean to. friend called and i found her a safe doctor. and then her friend called and then her friend's friend and then here we are. >> and that was a clip from the

new film entitled "call jane" which hits theaters this friday. it's release comes just four months after the supreme court ruling to overturn roe v. wade. and two weeks before the midterm election where the issue of abortion is back on the ballot. the film starring elizabeth banks and sigourney weaver is set in 1968, five years before roe and follows the store you of a pregnant woman who faced with a life threatening condition is refused by a team of all male doctors the chance to terminate the pregnancy. the woman find an underground collective of wum to save her louvre. they're all jaun. and sigourney weaver joins us now with the film's director. and thank you both for joining us. i watched the film. and it's incredible. and every adult should watch it. phyllis, i want to ask you about the timing and why you decided

to take on this project. seven years ago, how would we have known the timing of this movie is incredible and yet hard to get off the ground seven years ago. can you tell us about that? >> yes. well, when i -- i've been attached to to it for a few years at this point. even then when most of the money had been raised, people were hesitant about taking on the issue of abortion. and what we have to constantly he remind people of is that this is part of women's health care. and i wanted to do this film to in some way normalize the the e procedure and to talk about these issues in a rather less heeded way than i think perhaps it had been talked about

politically. >> sigourney, tell us about your character. she really teaches your counterpart, played by e liz bitd banks, a lot of life lessons. you learn from her two. it's a beautiful partnership. what brought you to the role. >> it is a film i very much wanted to be part of. and virginia was a great draw. she's quite entertaining, actually. she's very dry and matter of fact, and she has a very good sense about joy, for instance, elizabeth's character, that even though she's very, very middle class and quite proper, she is -- has potential. and i think it's very hard to say no to virginia. she's a lifelong activist who i think has really found her calling and devotes herself to it. and it's really a sisterhood of

taking care of other women. >> and on the issue of abortion, there's an overall message about who needs it. you see your character, teach teaching your counterpart, joy, a lot about judgment. >> i think that virginia and the call jane group are there not to judge the women but to be on her side completely, to give her all the support she needs because the procedure is already challenging. so it focuses us back on the woman's experience, you know, how important it is for her to get this kind of health care. the big difference now is of course that anyone involved in abortion including the woman is criminalized. and i think that that's to me quite alarming. but i think what the movie does is show the power of women, when

we come together, and how much that respect and allowing the woman to have dignity through this is -- how important it is, how effective it is, and what women can do when we come together so that when we go to the polls on november 8th we can make our voices heard. >> "call jane" premieres in theaters this friday. sigourney weaver and phyllis nagy, thank you very much for being on this morning. >> thank you. >> thank you. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." bipolar depression. it made me feel trapped in a fog. this is art inspired by real stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression

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make it your mission. learn how abbvie could help you save. we're still in fall, but doctors across the country are already seeing a wave of respiratory illnesses that usually don't come until winter. and it's even happening where it's still warm outside. nbc news national correspondent

gabe gutierrez has the latest. >> reporter: this morning the latest wave of child respiratory illnesses is spreading, prompting more concerns of a triple demic. >> serious illness. you know, with him being this young. he doesn't have an immune system to fight it off. >> reporter: 2-month-old rider was at the hospital. what would you tell parents? >> look up the symptom ls of rsv and trust your gut because i was on to border of coming to the hospital or not and feel i should have come sooner. >> reporter: last year and this year phoenix hospital has been dealing with an unusually high number of cases. it's bracing for a rough winter. >> covid-19 combined with a potentially bad influenza season and now we're seeing rsv going up at the same time, that obviously makes us concerned that we might get into this

triple pandemic situation. >> reporter: this year, even western and southern states with warmer temperatures are seeing a significant rise in rsv, in flu cases. in arizona, 87% of pediatric hospital beds are occoccupied, texas 91%. seattle children's says it's at 200% capacity in the e.r. >> under normal circumstances, 90% of kids get rsv by the time they're 2. because of the pandemic, standard patterns have been disrupted so we're seeing a lot of it at once. >> reporter: parents worried sick across the country from san diego, where this mom is caring for her baby. >> she was struggling to breathe. and we got scared because she had no color at all on her skin. >> reporter: to washington, d.c., where 3-year-old izzy banky is recovering. >> nobody wants to, like, hold their kid down and hold a mask

on their face. so she's screaming and trying to rip the breathing tubes out. that breaks your heart as a parent. >> nightmare. nbc's gabe gutierrez with that report. it is just about the top of the fourth hour of "morning joe." 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. joe biden and his cabinet hitting the road today launching a full-court press to push the administration's closing economic argument to voters. we'll get a preview of that message when white house chief of staff ron klain joins us. the president isn't the only one headed out on the campaign trail. donald trump will be holding rallies in ohio and pennsylvania and other states in a final midterm push to boost republican turnout. we'll have those details straight ahead. also ahead, utah is in the midst of its most competitive senate race in decades. we're going to the