right now on "andrea mitchell reports," in the final run-up to the midterms, president biden issuing a dire warning about election deniers and political violence in an evening speech to the nation. but voters are worrying most about the economy. did he change any minds? in a stunning twist, top trump advisor and former intelligence add kash patel is granted immunity. what his testimony before a

federal grand jury could mean for the investigation. north korea launches more missiles overnight, defying the u.n. i will speak to the u.n. ambassador about the escalating tensions in the korean peninsula, russia's assaults on ukraine and u.s. efforts to punish iran for its crackdown on women. ♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president biden laid into maga republicans in a speech to the nation last night. he was slamming donald trump's big lie, warning republican election deniers could send the country into chaos. only blocks from the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol, the president called the first election since the insurrection a defining moment, framing his speech in the horrific assault on nancy pelosi's husband in their san francisco home. >> the big lie has been proven to be just that, a big lie.

we don't settle our differences in america with a riot, a mob or a bullet or a hammer. there are candidates running for every level of office in america who won't commit -- they will not commit to accepting the results of an election that they are running in. it's unprecedented. it's unlawful. and it's unamerican. >> with voters paying record high prices, some democrats are questioning whether the president should have been focusing on the economy instead in his closing argument. joining me now, kristin welker. both david axelrod and bernie sanders, they are questioning

the president's decision to give that speech last night. >> you are right. that criticism we are hearing echoing conversations that i have had with democrats overnight who basically are saying, look, we want to stay focused on the top issues for voters like the economy. david axelrod fairly sharp in his criticism, saying given some of the races are so close that some democrats might not want to see president biden on their airwaves right now because his poll numbers have been struggling. the message from the bernie sanders camp is, anything coming from democrats should focus on the economy, on high prices. i have been speaking to those close to the white house and the president's thinking in terms of delivering the speech. they said, look, his strategy was and has been to call out extremism in the republican party and all of its form, whether you are talking about

threats to democracy or whether you are talking about things like slashing social security and medicare. the present saw this as a way, andrea, to really energize the democratic base. of course, this is an issue that he has been talking about consistently. it goes back to the days when he was a candidate. he felt particular urgency in the wake of that horrific attack against paul pelosi, which law enforcement officials have said was politically motivated. i think the question moving forward, andrea, what are we going to hear from president biden now? he is heading to new mexico. he is going to be focused on the economy again, that top issue for voters. in talking to democrats on the campaign trail, they say, you probably won't hear a lot about threats to democracy. they do want to keep it focused on those top issues, like abortion, like the economy, when you are talking about democrats, particularly when you are trying to win over independent voters and those all important suburban women voters. andrea, that is going to be so

critical. i don't anticipate that we will hear this being echoed across the country. but again, the president really standing by the decision to focus on this issue. i've been speaking to democrats more broadly about how they see this landscape right now, andrea. one telling me they are, quote, clear-eyed about just how tough the environment is for them given the economy, given that the president has low approval ratings. their strategy in these areas, to draw sharp contrast with their republican challengers, and to try to outperform the president in their various states and races, andrea. >> kristin welker, thanks for starting us off. joining us now, one of the democrats running in a tough re-election race, virginia congresswoman and former cia member, congresswoman spamberger. should the president have been using his bully pulpit to rebut

republicans, talk about the democratic accomplishments, as the most part of his closing argument? >> i think that every candidate on the ballot is making their own closing argument. i know that i am across our district. i was at four different early voting locations in four of the counties in virginia's seventh district. i was talking to the issues that matter to voters. among the things i heard about were fuel costs, inflation concerns, abortion rights, yes, democracy-related issues and the cost of prescription drugs. the work we have done in congress to lower the cost of prescription drugs, particularly for seniors on medicare, and the work that's left to be done. today, i'm going to be at a press conference talking about my work focused on our economy, focused on supporting small businesses. i was endorsed by the u.s. chamber of commerce in my re-election campaign. this is the way that in virginia's seventh district i am

continuing to answer questions related to what matters to voters and continuing to make known my policies, my positions, the work i have done, my achievements, why i'm asking for re-election. >> the top thing that you are finding among your voters, your constituents and what you are messaging mostly is not the election deniers, the issue of democracy, which is obviously profoundly important and profoundly important to the president. >> certainly as a former federal agent, former cia officer, i have sworn an oath to uphold and defend the constitution of the united states multiple times. my belief in our nation, in the foundations of our democracy is unwavering. the top thing i'm hearing from constituents, from voters is related to a general feeling of unease. for some people, that's the cost at the pump.

for some people, i was speaking with a general contractor and former who was talking about diesel prices. the cost of diesel is foundational to the rest of his businesses, the rest of his livelihood. that's a top concern for him. the cost of prescription drugs for those who require life-stabilizing medication, that's their primary issue. the uneasiness caused by inflation for many families, that is their primary issue. for some, their primary issue and their area of discomfort and unease relates to the divisiveness in politics, the violence that we have seen and the willingness of some people to defend the insurrectionists, as an example, my opponent has, or to mandate a national abortion ban, as my opponent has advocated for, or to insult the fbi, as my opponent has in calling them deep state and corrupt. this election is one of

contrast. many of our races across the country and specifically in ours right here in virginia's seventh district, it is. >> you have worked in law enforcement. you were a cia officer. what's your reaction to the level of security at nancy pelosi's home and the fact the capitol police were not watching the live feed of the break-in in real time? >> i hope that there is a significant after-action report and that that after-action report in whatever way can safely be made public, that many elements of it will be made public. i am grateful for the money and women of the capitol police who have been just showing heroic efforts to try and keep all of us safe, particularly as they have noted, they are facing record threats to members of congress and the buildings and their protectees. certainly, i think, we should all be committed to making sure they are at the staffing levels they need to be, they have the resources they need. but to look specifically at how

this attack on the speaker's home and this horrific attack on her husband, mr. pelosi, was able to occur, there should be a very, very clear and as appropriate public after-action report of what could have been done better and how he could have been protected. in the interim, i will continue praying for his recovery and the entire family as they deal with his recovery. >> nancy pelosi is being demonized in ads. she has been for years. in this cycle in particular, including by your opponent. is this the logical result of that kind of campaign advertising? i know it's free speech and you can't regulate the campaign ads. shouldn't party leaders speak out when you have people firing off shotguns and suggesting that's the way to take out the speaker? >> one would hope. certainly, as you mentioned,

within my race, my opponent, who isn't able to run against my record of accomplishment, is choosing to just link me to a version of the speaker. they continue to nationalize the race and continue to attack the speaker of the house in attempting to attack me by association. it would be, i think, appropriate and unfortunate it hasn't occurred for leader mccarthy to make clear his views, his desire to see a lowering of the tone of anger within our politics, of this vitriol. it stokes fear and has results at times at the polls. for those who prioritize winning over good policy, over good

governance, that's a choice that time and time again they seem willing to make. >> congresswoman abigail spanberger, good luck out there on the campaign trail. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. brooklyn net star point guard kyrie irving is under fire after tweeting a link to a documentary promoting holocaust denial and anti-semitic tropes. >> to follow up on the promotion of the movie and the book -- >> can you stop calling it on a promotion? >> you put it on your platform. >> do you see me -- >> people are going to -- >> i put it out there. like you put things out there. >> you put things out there for a living. >> my stuff is not -- >> let's move on. >> it's not filled with anti-semitics. >> don't dehumanize you. i can post whatever i want. say that and shut it down and move on to the next question.

>> that response or lack of a response, a lot more criticism amid the backlash, irving and the nets now say that each will donate a half million dollars to fight hate. irving, the nets and anti-defamation league releasing a joint statement announcing the donations. irving addresses his tweet saying, i am aware of the negative impact of my post towards the jewish community and i take responsibility. i do not believe everything said in the documentary was true or reflects my morals and principles. a short time ago, adam silver weighed in saying in part, kyrie irving made a reckless decision to post a link to a film containing deeply offensive anti-semitic material. silver goes on to say, i'm disappointed he has not offered an apology. the commissioner says he plans to meet personally with him next week.

rising tensions. more missiles fired from inside north korea putting its neighbors and the world on edge. we will talk about that and more coming with america's ambassador to the u.n. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. this week is your chance to try any subway footlong for free. like the subway series menu. just buy any footlong in the app, and get one free. free monsters, free bosses, any footlong for free! this guy loves a great offer. so let's see some hustle!

north korea fired three more missiles thursday, including an intercontinental ballistic missile which failed in flight. pyongyang launched a record number of 23 missiles on wednesday. the u.s. and south korea are continuing their largest ever joint military exercises on the peninsula this week. believed to be one of the reasons why kim jong-un is acting this strongly. this as the u.s. is leading an effort on iran to punish iran at the u.n. for its treatment of women. joining me now is the united states ambassador to the u.n.

it's good to see you. thank you for coming. >> it's great to be here. >> i want to talk to you about your efforts on iran to remove iran from the u.n. commission on the status of women. first, let's talk about north korea. overnight, there were more missiles. the u.s. is condemning the missile launches. the u.n. has not been able for years now to enforce any of its resolutions against the launches. north korea is heavily sanctioned. isn't china as well as russia, but china now part of the problem, not enforcing sanctions and not doing anything to put the brakes on kim jong-un? >> let me just say again, we do condemn these actions. they have fired over 50 missiles in 2022 alone. and they are breaking multiple security council resolutions. these are resolutions, andrea,

that we and the chinese and others worked together to put on the books against the dprk. but most recently, china has not joined us in condemning these actions in our efforts to add more sanctions on to the ones that we already have on board. so we really do need to wrap up our efforts so that the dprk gets the message that what they are doing is unacceptable. we will be having a security council meeting tomorrow to bring this before the entire council. we are working closely with our japanese and republic of korea colleagues also to ensure that the dprk does not think that this is something that is acceptable. >> won't you run into a

roadblock from russia and china there? >> you know, we have in the past. this is beyond really what the dprk has done over the past week. our hope is that we can bring them on board. but again, i'm not naive. but we will do our best. >> i want to turn to iran. we have seen the powerful images, the protests across iran, not just women, led by women, but men. the workers getting into it, unions. you want iran expelled from the u.s. commission on the status of women. how would that be accomplished? >> first, let me just say, yesterday we hosted a -- what's called an aria meeting that brought together a large number of member states, including the 15 members of the security council, into a meeting where we

really amplified our concerns about what is happening, the brutal attacks that this government has been imposing on women. and we also wanted to send a strong message to the women as well as the men who are protesting that the international community is listening to them, that we are -- that we support them. i announced yesterday following the vice president's announcement that we will seek to have iran removed from the csw. we don't think that it is appropriate for a country who violates the human rights of women to be on such a council. so we will be working toward that over the course of the next few weeks. working with all of our colleagues who are also members.

many of whom joined us in this call to see that we have them removed from the council. >> i do want to ask you about ukraine. first of all, there's a new poll from "the wall street journal" showing that 30% of americans think that we are doing too much to aid ukraine, that includes 48% of republicans. given the midterms and the strength of the -- in the polls of the republican party, possibly that they might take over the house and even the senate, how concerned are you about that the popular support in the u.s., the political support to continue fundings at these levels, is going to be diminished, especially given inflation and problems here at home? >> andrea, right now, we have bipartisan support for our actions and our activities related to ukraine, because we

all understand that this attack in ukraine is really an attack on all of the values that we stand for. it's an attack on the u.n. charter. it's an attack on human rights. and the russians are committing crimes against humanity. they are committing war crimes in ukraine. the ukrainian people are fighting on all of our behalves, because what russia is doing in ukraine today could be done elsewhere tomorrow. i believe that the american public do accept and understand why it is so important that we continue to support the ukrainian people's efforts to defend themselves against this brutal attack by the russians. we are hoping over the course of the coming weeks and months that the russians will come to their senses and pull their troops out of ukraine and end this brutal war and go to the negotiating

table to work out their differences with the ukrainians at the negotiating table. we have pushed for that. we tried to support that before russia made the move inside of ukraine. they would not accept a diplomatic solution to deal with the security concerns that they say they have. i think they thought that they could go into ukraine and in two weeks bring the ukrainian people to their knees. and the ukrainians have fought valiantly. part of the reason they fought valiantly is because we have been there to support them. the europeans have been unified with us to support them. nato has been unified in supporting them. we will continue to support them until russia removes their troops from ukraine. >> do you think that in terms of russia and vladimir putin, would there be value if the president

would meet with vladimir putin at the g20 to discuss the possibility of getting brittney griner and paul whelan back home? >> as you know, the president had an interview earlier in the week and said that for that purpose, he would be willing to meet with putin and just to say that the president -- this is one of the highest priorities that the president has. every single member of the cabinet, this is a priority for us that we bring every american, including brittney griner, home to her family. i know that efforts will continue to be made to do just that. >> well, ambassador, i know you are very busy. we will follow all of your efforts at the u.n. on all these suggests, especially the iranian women that you have been fighting for. thank you for being with us today. >> thank you, andrea. it's great to be here with you.

coming up, let's make a deal. one of former trump's closest aides gets immunity for providing information about the top secret documents at mar-a-lago. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. this is msnbc. this week is your chance to try any subway footlong for free. like the subway series menu. just buy any footlong in the app, and get one free. free monsters, free bosses, any footlong for free! this guy loves a great offer. so let's see some hustle! i'm lindsey vonn, and ever since i retired from skiing, free monsters, free bosses, any footlong for free! i've had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. you know, insomnia. before i found quviviq, an fda-approved insomnia medication for adults. you would not believe the things i used to think about when i couldn't sleep. hey, linds. i need you to sign this business contract. all 114 pages. lindsey, lindsey!! hey, lindsey! it's workout time.

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breaking news from federal court in washington where the prosecution has rested its case against stewart rhodes and other members of the original keepers who are charged with seditious conspiracy after the january 6 attack on the capitol. ryan reilly is outside the

court. what's the latest? is this a surprising quick rest of the prosecution case? >> reporter: you know, i think what's surprising is that they didn't call any of the cooperators who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy. they had three who admitted they were part of a plot who they didn't call. who they did call were other oath keepers who pleaded guilty to lesser charges. one said he was willing to die to keep trump in office. they didn't have someone who pleaded guilty specifically to the charge of seditious conspiracy. that would have been of value to the government. they can also use the fact of what the other defendants pleaded guilty to as part of the case. they can't actually explicitly argue that because someone pleaded guilty that that means these defendants are guilty of that same crime.

there's a little limited value there. they might have been worried about what could have come up on cross about pre-planning. there wasn't a lot of evidence of a pre-planned attack to actually -- a formed plan to enter into the u.s. capitol on january 6. what prosecutors say is this is about a stopping the peaceful transfer of power through any means. there hasn't been evidence about a plan to forcibly enter the u.s. capitol on january 6 that we saw from the prosecution during their case. >> ryan reilly on the breaking news from the u.s. district courthouse downtown. thank you. a major development in the mar-a-lago investigation. kash patel has been granted immunity to testify about those classified and top secret documents recovered at the former president's estate. it's a powerful but many what -- but somewhat risky move.

kash patel said he should declassify documents before he left office. he pleaded the fifth before the grand jury. he was designated by donald trump after the election, after the transition, to be the go-between, the liaison with the national archives for turning over documents. what does the immunity deal say about the importance prosecutors are placing on what they believe patel knows? >> it's just as you introduced the subject. when prosecutors grant a witness immunity, they are walking a tightrope. on one hand, it's an extraordinarily powerful tool in which you can compel, force a witness to go before the grand jury, even in the face of the fifth amendment right and make them testify about a crime. on the other hand, there's a risk. as you say, this immunity can be broad.

the likelihood of prosecuting that witness is very, very low. here prosecutors must have weighed those two competing interests and decided that the benefit they hope to receive from getting kash patel to testify before this grand jury far outweighed any benefit they might have hoped to receive from a prosecution. here kash patel has often said that trump declassified the documents before he left the white house, those documents that were found at mar-a-lago, they were no longer classified. this is a defense trump's lawyers have never been willing to make overtly in any filings, kash patel repeats it often. now prosecutors will have a chance to put kash patel before the grand jury, compel him to testify and hear what he has to say under oath about this so-called defense. i expect, andrea, this defense is going to go away and pass on to something else you only hear on the news but will never see in court. >> ken, both you and i have

reported extensively on kash patel from when he was working with nunes and they were leading the republican-led intelligence committee in the house, the midnight run, his rise through the government. he ends up under donald trump in the intelligence community with broad powers. then at the pentagon where he was on january 6th. making key decisions. >> a die hard trump loyalist. through those jobs, he was pushing to declassify information he thought was favorable to donald trump's point of view on russia and other things. senior government officials were resisting. one thing that's not clear is, there's no evidence that he had any role in any of the documents that ended up at mar-a-lago. he said donald trump declassified documents. it's pretty clear to me the justice department wants to put him under oath and nail that story down. they need to figure out if there's any valid claim that

trump declassified anything. >> wasn't there a case where the cia director threatened to quit if he were put in charge of some of the intelligence under her? >> i think that's right. there was a moment where -- he certainly was pushing for declassification of stuff to do with the russia investigation that people were resisting, saying it was going to expose sources and methods. >> paul, let's talk about what this means more broadly. would they be granting this kind of immunity to a key player that close to donald trump if they were not very serious about this investigation and where it might lead? >> in the 16 years that i was a federal prosecutor, we only rarely used use immunity. that's because it is so important to make sure you use it carefully. when you do, even sparingly, provide use immunity to a witness, it means you are likely

going to go forward with a prosecution. here the tell, if you will, from the departmentof justice, if they are providing that to kash patel, the likelihood a prosecution will follow against some other individual is greatly increased. >> a prosecution, let's be specific here, so many investigations, about the mar-a-lago documents, this is not just an effort to get all the classified documents back into the hands of authorities? >> that's right. remember, that was one idea, that perhaps all the department of justice wanted to do was remove those classified documents and place them in a secured location where they would be safe. when you are giving someone use immunity, that powerful tool, it means we're no longer just concerned about securing the documents. it means the department of justice are looking forward to and thinking about a prosecution. >> paul, ken, thanks to both of you for your expertise. in his own words.

donald trump opening up about his relations with world leaders and the state of american democracy with bob woodward who joins us next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. mitcc . so naturally, we doubled down with a new puppy. thankfully, we also have new tide ultra-oxi with odor eliminators. between stains and odors, it can handle double trouble. for the #1 stain fighter and odor remover, it's got to be tide. ♪♪ what will you do? will you make something better? create something new? our dell technologies advisors can provide you with the tools and expertise you need to bring out the innovator in you. woman tc: my a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. doctor tc: ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. to bring out the innovator man tc: my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®. son tc: mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. song: a1c down with rybelsus® anncr vo: in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than the leading branded pill.

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and 2020. >> it's the party of strength and common sense. >> and who's the heir? >> the heir will be determined. as an example, the republican party has always been known for disloyalty to each other. okay? they always broke up. i will say this, and this isn't a threat, but if they went against me, they all lose their election. even if they lost 5% of my voters, because nobody has a base like mine. >> joining me now is bob woodward, "the washington post" reporter and associate editor. the trump tapes, the audio of his interviews with donald trump is out now. you have 20 interviewed over months and months. they are fascinating.

why release them now? what motivated you? >> because i listened to them earlier in the year and discovered that the audio is so powerful and revealing. the example you cite there, he says it's not a threat, but, of course, it is a threat. i think one of the things now before tuesday's upcoming election is that trump is on the ballot. his name is not there, but when they do the exit polling and the entrance polling, on tuesday, they're going to find out that lots of people were there voting for him or against him. >> in fact, according to a new "new york times" analysis, there are more than 370 election denying republicans on the ballot. those are people either following his lead or wanting his embrace, thinking it's popular. in june of 2020 you asked trump

whether he would accept the outcome of the election. this was months ahead of january 6th. let's listen. >> well, we're going into the election. everyone keeps asking, suppose it's a close election and it's contested. what are you going to do? everyone says trump is going to stay in the white house if it's contested. >> well, i won't even comment on that. i don't want to comment on that at this time. bob, i got all these people. will talk to you later tonight. >> he wanted to get out of there. you know what's so interesting? i should have followed up on that. i asked him in these interviews 600 questions. it's the one time he said, i don't want to comment. obviously, there was in his mind and maybe organizationally the

intent of not staying or disputing the election as he does until this day. >> this is timely with north korea firing the most missiles in any one day, the day before yesterday, and then again last night, several more, including an icbm that did fail. kim jong-un unleashed and on the brink most people expect of his first nuclear test in five years. you, of course, at the height of the great love-fest between trump and kim jong-un asked him about the letters from kim jong-un, which were found at mar-a-lago. that's listen. >> nobody else has them. but i want to treat them with respect. >> i understand. >> don't say i gave them to you. >> okay. >> but i think it's okay. normally, i wouldn't have -- i wasn't going to give them to bob. you make a photostat? >> i dictated them into a tape

recorder. my assistant -- >> you were surprised by the? >> yes. there were 11 of them. it shows an evolving relationship of being tough and -- >> he wants to get along with me. >> what do you take from the fact that those are among the documents he brought to mar-a-lago? >> well, he really nurtured this relationship with kim jong-un. you should remember, not only does he have nuclear weapons, they are concealed. they are hardened. they are dispersed. the pentagon and the intelligence community deeply worry, were traumatized by trump's relationship with kim jong-un. i think as i tried to think about these tapes and listen to them, it addresses the question, does he understand the

presidency? does he -- you cover foreign affairs. the idea that you have this president who has no experience, really won't listen to other people. when i asked, what are you trying to do here, drive kim to the bargaining table? he said, no. it's instinct, instinct. we all have instincts. the dangers that we had at that time, we're going to learn more in history. now, it's visited upon us again. what would trump do as president again lingers in a big way and i think needs to be the focus of as much reporting as possible. >> which is another reason for releasing the audiotapes, to show the conversations, to let people hear them and experience them. obviously, in your experience,

richard nixon resigned under pressure because of criminal behavior that was going to lead to impeachment. he was persuaded by republican party leaders. >> goldwater -- >> he was impeached but he would have been convicted by the senate. >> yes. one of the scenes carl bernstein and i found is that goldwater went to nixon at the end, as you say. he knew he was going to be impeached. how many votes do i have? in one of the courageous moments said, mr. president, i have counted and you have five votes and one of them is not mine. the next day, nixon announced he was resigning. >> you know, that's so extraordinary. how do you compare donald trump and his attitude towards the law and towards the office of the presidency and richard nixon?

>> well, i mean, you could write books on that. history is going to be debating it. but what trump -- the big difference is -- i've done these audios. people have asked about the interviews that were done, the nixon interviews in the '70s. nixon then couldn't run. but trump could run. i believe from my reporting and others, he is going to run. so how is -- biden raises the issue of democracy. but i think it sounds abstract to people struggling with crime and inflation. the real question is, what would trump do as president? >> well, this time he would have a team of people around him who

know the ropes, who are not as inexperienced as those he brought in. >> precisely. he would not nominate people who are their own boss. he wants total loyalists in the white house and the cabinet if he is there again. >> no more jim mattis. bob woodward, as always, thank you. the audio book -- the audio is "the trump tapes." fascinating stuff. >> thanks. in ohio, both senate candidates are in last-minute push to secure voters with the polls now showing them neck and neck with only five days to go. nbc's jesse kirsch is in the hometown of j.d. vance. what are you finding there? jes finding there? >> reporter: yes, andrea, i think one of the things we've been looking at is if tim ryan can target across the aisle,

moderate minded republicans who might be over trump. one voter in particular i spoke with i think was interesting around all the questions around trump, some of which was just discussed there with bob, that just because j.d. vance has signed on to the election denialism from 2020, that wasn't an automatic disqualifier. he wanted to see if vance would move more toward the middle, but he continues to see vance as someone who is just, as he put it, falling in line with former president donald trump. here's what he told me as he made his decision to go against republican party and vote for tim ryan. >> i think we need to start looking at who that person is as opposed to the party that's affiliated with them, especially when there's concerns right now within the republican party as to where it is, who they are, and in a lot of cases i've heard the party's left me. they just don't represent my values, my interests at this point. so, what am i supposed to do? not vote? vote for someone i don't

support. >> and one of the interesting things as well from this race, andrea, is that j.d. vance likes to talk about tim ryan being someone who always votes with president joe biden, with speaker nancy pelosi. you hear republican voters seeing vance imblem attic of that with former president trump. we're keeping an eye on the economy, jobs in particular. you notice 2020 election denialism is something talked about, but it's not the first thing pushed, nor something like abortion. the economy is front and center. >> it is ohio. thank you very much. a federal judge has granted a restraining order banning armed groups from staking out voting sites. here with us is michael waltman, president for the center for justice at nyu law, resource guide highlighting protections

for voters and election workers. we really recommend that everyone take a close read on that. and then also with us, mark elias, a democratic election lawyer. thanks to both. mark, this retraining order is especially important since tuesday was the last day to mail in a ballot to arizona. so, these ballot boxes are the only option before voting in person on election day. your firm has been involved in some of the litigation. is it -- does it go far enough to protect the vote? >> yeah, so, thank you very much for having me. it's not just it's just the last day before in-person voting. but more than 85% of arizonans vote by -- so it's quite a large segment of the population that use vote by mail and rely on drop boxes. drop boxes are sphere metal containers. they're a way to be sure their mail-in ballot gets in on time.

what we're seeing in arizona is a larger effort at election vigilanteism around the country. whether it is filing frivolous challenges like we're seeing in georgia, we're seeing this uptick in election vigilanteism. >> michael, talk to us about your new guide. it's available on the brennan center's website. explain what voters can find, how they should use it if they're worried about intimidation at the polls. >> well, you're exactly right. the most important thing that voters should know is that intimidation of voters is illegal. intimidation of election workers and election officials is illegal. and the recent court rulings have reinforced that. if voters have any problem, they can turn, among other things, to 1-866-our-vote, which is the national voter protection hotline. and it's important that law enforcement step up, make clear

that it will do its part, as we're starting to see. so, for most voters around the country, there's every reason to think that this will be as secure and calm of an election day or election process as we ever and usually have. it's also the case, though, as you know that there is an organized and inflamed movement trying to attack american democracy, all the reasons you said, as well as the people who are election deniers who want to run our elections. i don't want to pretend that's not new. you often hear people say every two years, oh, we're going to show up and stop the misconduct with our millions of people. this time there really is much more organization behind this kind of vigilanteism. the good news is for the overwhelming majority of voters, i think this should be a normal election day. and there's no reason to stay away from doing what we all want to do to express our voice. >> and michael, this restraining order from the judge is also

banning the founder, melody jennings, of clean elections usa, from spreading election disinformation. her lawyers are arguing it infringes on free speech. how unusual is it for a judge to include that in a ruling? >> it is unusual. it's also unusual to have such weaponized lies as we see as a political strategy right now trying in a fairly textbook way to undermine confidence in our democracy and our elections. we're all keeping an eye, of course, on twitter, where the new owner, elon musk, has said he doesn't want it to turn into a cesspool. a very good way to test that is to make sure that lies designed to disenfranchise, lies designed to discriminate, aren't promulgated on these social media platforms. again, this is not just the normal noise around an election. it's an organized antidemocracy effort of a kind we have not seen. but the pro-democracy movement

starts with voters going and voting. and it's just, again, no reason for people to think that they will be blocked or threatened or hurt when they do. >> to be continued. we have to keep our eyes on this, as you are. michael wallman, mark elias, thanks to both of you. we have breaking news from israel, where the acting prime minister has just conceded defeat, and he has called and congratulated benjamin netanyahu, who is poised to begin his third term as prime minister. organized transition of power. this is the fifth election in just four years in israel. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show online on facebook@mitchellreports. chris jansing will be here in just a few moments. in just a few moments u won't take a time-out chris jansing will be here in

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god day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. at this hour, we're watching as some of the biggest names in the country are on the road trying to answer the fundamental question upon which control of congress and future direction of the country rests. what motivates you, the voter? in these critical final days before the midterms, republicans are betting that people will