tv Alex Witt Reports MSNBC October 13, 2024 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT
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now to today's other top stories. a hot air balloon crashed into a radio tower causing it to collapse. this during albuquerque's famous balloon festival. it is the second time a balloon came into contact with that tower in 20 years. the balloon, which had 20 people on board, safely landed in a field. no one was hurt. space x accomplished its boldest test and shot a starship rocket into orbit and
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fell back to earth, landing in chopstick arms attached to the tower. it splashed down in the indian ocean. and the comet of the century thrilling stargazers last night as a travel the closest it has been to earth and 80,000 years. photos show comet a-three is a bright strike of light over the horizon. it will be visible in sunset at the end of the month. one of the first asked leading questions, how long will we have to wait for a presidential would it be declared? the next hour starts right now. good day to all of you. welcome to. the race for president, it says type as it gets with 23 days until the election. number president donald trump and vice president kamala harris are tied with 43% in our
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and use whole. the poll also shows a massive gender gap with limits of harris by a 14 margin and men backing trump 16 points. harris campaign outputting a focus on male voters. kamala harris and tim walz will visit battlegrounds all week with harris starting a series of stops focused on engaging black men. senator jb vance today acknowledging the struggle to get more support from women. >> i am aware of the gender gap. i see the polling everybody else does. i also think there's some evidence that we made progress in the last few weeks and are a few weeks away, keep on making the argument to women voters, two male voters, to everybody. i think that we could be such a better job for women to make it possible for them to afford the basic necessities of life. >> and that you nbc news poll also finds an expanded ballot, including third-party candidates, trump leads by 1 points among registered voters was 7% other candidates and are
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still undecided. earlier today, steve dug into some other key findings. >> this is in perspective the challenge that harris faces. incumbent vice presidents, running while their boss was still in office. just look. george bush senior, his boss reagan had nearly a 60% approval rating. clinton was at 60%. or didn't win, but he won the popular vote. just look how different the atmosphere is. i did's approval rating, only 43 points. she is running in a totally different atmosphere than previous incumbent vice residence did, and then we can talk about issues. this is an interesting way typically in the past we have just given folks a list of issues. is this issue so singularly important that it is the important basis of your vote for president? you can see abortion comes in number one. >> and president biden acting
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as consoler in chief today as he greeted locals and first responders in florida still grappling with the damage from back-to-back hurricanes. the president announcing more than $600 million in funding for six department of energy project in the southeast. that includes shoring up the electric grid. we have correspondence and analysts ready to cover all these developments force, and were going to begin in greenville, north carolina with nbc's aaron gilchrist, who is traveling with the vice president. we have just three weeks left, aaron. the harris campaign is blanketing swing states with a really aggressive schedule. where are they going and were they targeting? were they not going? >> i was actually going to see the exact same thing. it's safe to say we are in the part of the campaign cycle where we can expect in particular vice president harris to be out every single day through the election. we know that is going to be the case this week.
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she entered the arena here a little while ago. we know she will be in pennsylvania tomorrow and detroit, michigan on tuesday. she will be in wisconsin and michigan again. michigan again. >> her running mate will also be in several states, as well as surrogate. first lady joe biden will be out on the campaign trail, and she is early this week, too. you think about who she's targeting, the harris/wells campaign, and the church stopped earlier today, trying to speak to church voters. vot. in black populations in the state and battleground states
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across the country. in her message today, she talked about people putting their faith into action, i particular at the ballot box. she also took the opportunity to sort of tweet a message we've heard in the past to really -- directed at the church audience that she spoke to earlier today when she talked about her opponent, former president trump, try to take advantage of the moment as people here are trying to deal with the aftermath of hurricane helene. i want you to hear what she had to say about that. >> yet, church, there are some who are not acting in the period of community. and i'm speaking of those who have been literally not telling the truth -- lying -- about people who are working hard to help folks in need, spreading this information. when the truth and facts are required, and the problem with this beyond the obvious is that it's making it harder then to get people life-saving information. >> before you came to us here
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live, we did a profuse acres who took to the stage here, and they really did talk about the need for folks in this room to turn out to vote in the election. early voting starts in north carolina on thursday this week. those speakers talked about the need for folks to turn out to vote, to go back to their circles of friends and make sure they are either voting early or planning to turn out on election day in november is well. that's a message that i think we can ask next year the vice president reiterate when she takes the stage here today. she will draw those comparisons, as she has in the past, the former president trump . this is a similar message that i imagine she will take to these other states that she's willing to be visiting this week and the next couple of weeks leading up to election day. >> 100%. let me ask you quickly to get a sense of crowd size. in all fairness, the picture we are seeing, it looks totally packed. we do this with donald trump's rallies as well and i found a lot of the time, they aren't as
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full as the picture would suppose from one camera angle. how does this place look? >> yeah. as i look around the room, alex, this arena is full. i do see a few seeds that are still empty, some that are reserved. there are a lot of people standing on the floor behind me as well, some people that are blocked and can't the stage at all, they are still here to hear vice president harris speak. we haven't got the number yet from the campaign. we don't know yet exactly how many people this arena can hold, but suffice it to say, it is all but full here at this point, and we know the vice president is expected to speak at the 4:00 hour. >> listen, i can tell you one of our audible cameramen has been listening to the conversation and is giving us a wonderful look right now. pretty packed, we can confirm that. you so much, my friend. go from there to traylor, who is right here in los angeles with us. he is following former president trump. another
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welcome to you. trump is going to be rallying in arizona just a few hours, which means i know you're went out to take off. i will this event be different than this california rally yesterday in coachella, if at all? >> for one, the voter demographic looks a bit different. arizona is, as you know, a pivotal swing state that is essential for vice president harris and also for former president donald trump. we see both of them by for the vote there. at the southern border state, a crucial swing state. coachella, california, with a bit of a different messaging, a different legal strategy. the former president is speaking to trump campaign senior officials about that move. the real intent behind yesterday and being in california just to democratic states was for trump to go into harris's backyard and try to pin a state in crisis, as trump called it, and that to vice president harris. in 2020, trump lost california by over 5 million votes. he claimed that was complete
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fraud. take a quick listen to that. >> they sent millions of millions of ballots someplace. california, they don't have anything like a voting booth. they just send them all over the place, they come back, and they say, oh, somebody won by 5 million votes. >> so in terms of what we are going to hear today from the former resident, we have to get these prepared remarks and the script that he supposed to stick to. when he goes off prompter, he also goes into unfounded claims about election interference. we see them do that, looking ahead to november, slowing down in the upcoming election. we expect to hear from the former president remarks focused on immigration, and arizona. what we actually might here's to be determined.
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>> okay, jake traylor, thank you so much for that. for more on the 2024 is, we have molly john fast, host of the fast politics and special correspondent at vanity fair. we also have melanie, for punch bowl muse, and an msnbc political contributor. glad to have you both here. i want to start with did you hear that sound bite from donald trump there at coachella? when he goes off on, you don't have anything like a voting with in california. they send them all over the place, so corrupt. you have been following him so carefully for so long. is there a word, or a condition you are using to describe this sort of discourse? >> right. he calls it the weave, right? where he has stories that are maybe unrelated and he puts them together. it's the weave. he doesn't sound as sharp as he did a decade ago, though that is probably the understatement of the year.
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he goes sorta very tangentially. look, and these rallies, what he is doing is, especially going to california, i think he is trying to drop some of these ideas. in aurora, it's an anti- immigrant thing. he has this ability. in turn, the message is really dark and really scary. >> that she had, even just last month. what has changed, and is her enough time for either candidate to plan ahead of election day? election day?
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>> this is not 2016. she go somewhere, she campaigns, she gets better for her campaign. so it's not wherewith hillary would send her a place, it might not necessarily help. that's what happened in wisconsin. she is very focused, and they are doing a ton of advertising, whereas i think it's very important to remember the harris campaign wants you think because that's how they run this whole time. that's what they always say. the trump campaign wants you think he's winning because he is -- either way, he's planning to dispute the election results no matter what, unless he wins, right? so i just want you to keep that in your head when you look at all these polls. again, i am not saying that the polls are wrong. i'm not saying that she may
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not, she may not win, i'm just saying that we have 23 days and he is laser focused, and i would still -- all things being equal, rather be her than him. >> so melanie, the new nbc news wording suggests that harris's team has been discussing ways to differentiate herself from president biden. that includes weighing how she can put some distance between them. what you make of the strategy? >> i think kamala harris has really struggled so far articulating how she would be different than president joe biden. i think she's trying to walk this really thin line here. on the one hand, she wants to carveout her own lane, she wants to show people what she would do with the presidency, and she does want to create some distance, because biden is really unpopular. his numbers did improve since he dropped out of the race, but there are some risks to being so closely tied to him. on the other hand, she wants to be able to run on the pieces of his agenda that were popular. she was -- the infrastructure
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bill, for example. she wants to be able to hug those pieces of the agenda tightly, and that is what we are seeing her do right now. i would argue for kamala harris, one of the biggest differences is the way she is a messenger, and the way she is stylistically so different than president joe biden. obviously, she is a younger freshfaced. at the end of the day, one other candidate is going to win is the one that voters believe is the true agent of change. >> molly, today, she spoke at a church in north carolina. it's all part of her souls to the polls effort, and it the start of a so-called battleground blitz. harris and tim walz, they are spending this week hitting every major battleground through saturday. what do you make of the strategy here? we are 23 days out from election day. you think it's good timing? >> this is very smart and exactly what they should be doing. melanie had a really good point, which is, she's actually quite a good or a tour. much, much more lively a speaker
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and she does a rally speech -- trump is a complicated rally speech, but are rally speech is a really good. she has a style that is all her own. that is a little bit rhetorical. and she sort of cracked the code of being a woman presidential candidate in a really interesting way. she projects strength, but still is herself, and that is no small feat. another thing to think about is that she, unlike donald trump, has all these presidents who can go out and work for her. so she is sending clinton to the southern states, right? which makes a lot of sense. she's got barack obama going around the campaign for her, and he's a really good messenger. remember, obamacare just gets more and more popular. and then she has also got biden to some degree out there. so i actually think those are hugely helpful for her.
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>> let me ask you a question on immigration, molly. democrats appear to have evolved their message a little bit on the topic. they're talking about her univision town hall on thursday, sing the vice president underscored how much her hard-line immigration message has focused on enforcement rather than reform, as former president donald j trump uses the border to paint his harris as a weak and ineffective leader. the question is, is is a 2024 election shift, or is it a different take for the democratic party going forward question mark >> well, i would say something about harris is, i actually think she is not as lefty as biden in certain ways, and that was something that hurt her in the 2020 primary contest is that she is actually a prosecutor. and when she got this feature at the border, she talked all about, you know, the things that make fentanyl, and the cartels that run fentanyl. when she comes to this stuff,
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which i actually think would be great for that kind of thing, americans in arizona, you see a candidate who is running on border enforcement in this new sort of democratic way of -- and again, there's not a path. there's not money for border enforcement or for processing. so you really find yourself in a situation where, you know, you have people who are just in limbo for years and years and years. it needs to be fixed, and it helps democrats that there was initially this border bill. >> melanie, house speaker mike johnson was on meet the press this morning. there's this national abortion ban. what about that? >> i understand there's not a consensus, but would you move to ban abortion at the national level?
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>> i couldn't do that, even if i wanted to, kristin. i have 444 colleagues. my view doesn't change. there's no way i could bring -- i don't know. even with republicans. we have a lot of work to do. got it >> based off your own reporting and perhaps the philly shaped congress? >> they can change the message all they want, which we have seen some swing state candidates in these critical races do, it is the policy that is the problem. speaker mike johnson knows that. but, if you listen to his response or to kristin, he was doing a little verbal gymnastics. is nothing he doesn't want to put it on the floor, and he didn't say he wouldn't put it on the floor if they did have the margins. is absolutely right in this current congress, there's no way can get through the current
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house. and of course, that would go nowhere in the democratic- controlled senate and would not be signed into law. if republicans do sweep control of congress and also have donald trump in the white house, i am telling you right now that there is going to be enormous pressure from the right flank, from conservatives, from christian evangelicals to being on the floor. i'm not sure that it's going to be an outright federal ban. it might be. that would restrict abortion access as only republicans that ran on it for years. and if you have control of washington, i just don't think that this issue completely goes away, the matter what they are saying just a few weeks before the election alex. >> thank you. this was a great conversation. come back and see me if you can next weekend. is one of the key questions everybody wants answered. when will we know who america's next president is? we are back in 90 seconds and we can tell you that. that. platinum plus. for sparkling clean dishes even on the toughest jobs.
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she had a positive rating. 48-45, so that advantage has gone in the last few weeks and washed away for her. >> he's the man. steve on meet the press with analysis of nbc's new pole. joining me now, we have david waterman, senior editor and elections analyst. good to see you. thanks for coming back to the show. what do you make of steve's analysis of the favorability rating there? does a track with what you are seeing? >> it does. and look, it's been a remarkable turnaround. donald trump is still more underwater than she is. the issue is, the rebound in rollout, september had a great debate. october was always going to be something more challenging for the harris campaign and for democrats, and she's really got to pound the pavement in the final days of this race.
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she's got to show up not just in the settings that appeal to moderate republicans, whether it is liz cheney trying to swing that nikki haley voter, and also to be heading up the places like erie, pennsylvania, and saginaw, michigan. wisconsin, leases were median incomes are closer to $50,000 and $150,000, and she's got to be making that closing case there. >> she certainly is a campaign blitz this coming week, so she is probably listening to you. here are the top issues among voters of the nbc news poll. it starts with abortion, goes to democracy,'s cost of living there. in the abc news poll, voters are split on whether america's best days are behind or ahead. 59% believe the economy is getting worse. david, can vice president harris turn these numbers around her she distances herself from president biden's policies?
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>> she simultaneously wants to talk about the future, she wants to make the case that she will cut the cost of living, whether it is a $25,000 first- time homebuyer credit or the $6000 expanded baby bonus. but you know the republicans and trump are going to be trying to tire biden at every turn. they're also trying to turn this into more of a culture war finale to the campaign, and especially the trump campaigns add saying that he is for us and she is for they/them. she's really in a box when it comes to responding to that type of messaging, because she doesn't want to move the issue set to the kinds of things that she stood for back in 2019 or 2020 or focus on how she shifted her position, but rather turning to trump, and the kinds of things he's engaging in recently, such as a two hour marathon speech in detroit that went off the rails and insulted
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the city of detroit. those are the kinds of messages that might prove effective in those swing states as we get closer to november 5th. >> okay. we are going to cut this a little shorter than i intended. we had a little hiccup with your audio, but we appreciate everything you have heard. thank you so much. there are new developments of the hurricane zone at this hour. what we are seeing right now, next. next. there's toothpaste white, and there's crest 3dwhitestrips white. whitens like a 400 dollar professional treatment. pilot: prepare for non-stop smiles. crest. our right to reproductive health care is being stolen from us. i can't believe this is the world we live in, where we're losing the freedom to control our own bodies. we need your support now more than ever. go online, call, or scan this code, with your $19 monthly gift. and we'll send you this "care. no matter what" t-shirt.
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members to help with hurricane response efforts, including search and rescue, debris removal, and road clearance. let's go to claude in st. petersburg, florida for us. i know the president visited the area today and announced some new funding to help shore up the power grid. but what about this dire gas actuation? >> alex, we saw the presidents helicopter flyover this area earlier today. he also spoke about the crisis in florida. so we have the power issue, and then they are working on it every day. they update the numbers, and more and more people are getting their power back. we know that during their press conference, one of the officials it was with the president so that they expect most people in florida to have their power back by tuesday. and we also have these gas distribution centers, as you mentioned. we've been here all day. we seen these lines go as far as 20 blocks, and one of the officers is telling me that it
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was more than a mile long. now they are dealing with other issues here because some of those cars are running out of gas while in line. one of the sergeants told me that an officer had to push a car right here just a few minutes ago. so if you look right now, you see cars because they are now controlling the cars that can get in line, making sure that they are not stopped along the way, running out of gas. they're trying to figure out the logistics to make sure the people that do line up don't run out of gas on the way. it's been quite difficult, but they are going to be open until 7:00 p.m., so there still a few hours for people that need the gas. this is what the president had to say about the gas and the power situation in florida. >> fema has delivered 1.2 million meals, over 300,000 liters of water, 2 million gallons of fuel. power has also been restored to over 2 million people in a matter of days. and thanks to tens of thousands of power workers, from 43 states and canada, working nonstop to
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make sure more people have power restored soon. >> now, the reality is that according to gas buddy, 87% of gas stations in the tampa area are currently out of gas, and most people get their gas from these gas stations. the president says they are distributing 2 million gallons, the state is distributing 1 million gallons a distribution centers like this one, it is still quite difficult for most people to get gas. if you gas stations that are open also have long lines, so that's what it's like here for the people in order, alex. >> wow. 87% of gas stations out of gas in the tampa area. that is a stat. thank you, appreciate that. whether job is harder than ever right now. you are going to hear from them in a live report from the middle east, next. ddle east, n. g starting within 5 minutes. it also reduced flare-ups.
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>> breaking news out of the middle east, intensifying clashes between the israeli military and hezbollah. more than 60 people were hurt. earlier today, the idf reporting more than 100 projectiles fired from lebanon into israel. and it comes as the united states is reportedly deploying an air defense system to israel to aid in their defense against hezbollah's attacks. nbc's matt bradley is joining us from beirut, lebanon, with
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the very latest. what more do we know about this air defense system? >> yeah, it's called the terminal high altitude area defense system, and this is something that, actually, this is the second time the u.s. has deployed one of these systems to israel, and it really is complementing israel's already robust three-tier anti-air, antimissile battery system that is really been used to great effect for the past several years. this is something that really is going to be deployed to fight against a possible counterattack to what could become israel's counterattack to that salvo -- more than 100 iranian listed missiles, you remember that from last week, that were fired at israel. we still haven't heard exactly what or when or how the israelis are going to respond to that. we understand that israel's cabinet is meeting tonight to discuss just that very topic. and with youngkin for now over, we could be seeing that reprisal attack cummings noon. and u.s. diplomats throughout the world are terrified that
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this could really erupt into a regionwide war. and that's what you are seeing deployments like this one, this antimissile battery, the attendant troops, a couple troops are going to be on and operating the system. the system has been used throughout the entire world. the first time it was used in real life was actually in the united arab emirates back in 2020 two when it shot down a few missiles that were fired by those rebels in yemen. this time, they were firing at 2022 with the emma rody's. with this kind of a brewing war within a war here in lebanon. we are seeing increasing fighting, or really one-sided attacks by the israelis against you to fill. this is a u.n. body, u.n. armored force peacekeepers, blue helmets, deployed writer along lebanon southern border with israel. they have been there since the 1970s, just keeping the peace along that very, very western border. now, we have seen really more than a dozen of them injured in just the past couple of days, almost all of them by israeli
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fire. now, the israelis have said they are not specifically targeting unit fill, i spoke with the spokesman today about what he thinks about this. the fact that his peacekeepers are constantly being shelled by the israelis, after the israelis asked them to move. these peacekeepers said they were going to stand their ground. his was the spokesman told me. >> definitely, there should be more notice, there should be more coordination. but there should be no firing. that's what we are asking, is that we are asking for you know, to go back to a political and diplomatic negotiations. there is no military solution to this conflict. so as you can here, he is asking for peace. he is saying there shouldn't be any firing at all, as his peacekeepers, the men and women in this mission, are quickly becoming casualties of this expanding war. alex. >> that is wrong.
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thank you very much. matt bradley, thank you very much. the voices of the first trump administration sounding the alarm on a potential second trump president. you will want to hear this next. next. metamucil's psyllium fiber helps keep your digestive system moving so you can feel lighter and more energetic. metamucil keeps you movin'. and try fizzing fiber plus vitamins. hey, scott. this stuff's perfect for fall, right? yep! it feeds your lawn now to strengthen roots all winter for a better lawn next spring. how do you know all of this? says it right there on the bag. yes, it does. download the my lawn app today for lawn care tips and customized plans. feed your lawn. feed it.
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>> donald trump today repeating threats to use the military to round up and prosecute his enemies if re-elected. trump also saying he is planning a massive rally at madison square garden later this month. one veteran democratic strategist warning today, the event parallels a rally held there in 1939 and highlights trump's threats to democracy. >> there telling you -- and by the way, if they win, they are going to correctly say, we told you during the election what we are going to do and you voted for us. in light of the whole thing. you think you got nothing to lose? how about looking at american his tree for one time and see what can happen here. and they are telling you, we are not making this up.
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we can be fact checked by anybody. >> 20 me now is atlantic staff writer and msnbc political contributor mark leibowitz and a friend to us. welcome back to the show. is james carville right? does this new york rally has shades of 1939? >> well, what james carville is absolutely right about is it is all out there. this is not a trump campaign that is hiding anything. this is not a campaign the subtlety. donald trump is never been one for subtlety, but he's right. they have made it known, and you know, the harris campaign does not win, is going to be plenty of blame and second- guessing to go around. but the fact is, the other side is made it perfectly clear what they are running on, and what is at stake. and obviously, as a great onus on the other side to try to make the case. but at a certain point, i mean, i do think that the contrast
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are being drawn pretty closely, pretty starkly by both sides. and again, that's why they vote . and a lot of this anxiety from the harris side is coming from the tightening polls, and i think it's all sort of jumbled together. look, we have three weeks out. it's very tense, and the election is going to be very close. i'm hardly the first to say that. >> so here is sort of an under the radar part of nbc's pole. 18% say protecting democracy is the issue that would motivate them to vote. it's just a few points behind abortion and immigration, but it is more than the cost of living. so take a listen to some of what a former white house number said about the members of trump's former allies were broken with him over his rights to democracy.
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>>'s own vice president is not supporting him. multiple former chiefs of staff, former national security advisers, multiple former department of defense ads, chairman of the joint chief of staff, deputy press secretary, another white house contractor, the list goes on. all of those that saw him up close and personal in some of the seniormost roles and consequential roles are the people saying he should be nowhere near the oval office. >> so first of all, the number, 18%, concerned about protecting democracy -- does that number surprise you? should kamala harris employ more of these former trump staffers to get out there and spread the message? >> i think -- look, i think that's a winning message. i think the fact that, you know, so many people who work closely with former president trump and knew him so well can testify this and have, is quite eloquent. and i think makes a good case for them. as far as democracy goes, it's a higher number than has been recently, and is a compelling number in the exit polls. the problem with running on
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democracy is that it is a bit more of an abstraction that things like abortion, immigration, cost-of-living are. it doesn't -- it's something that everyone believes in, you would like to think, but it's hard to run on, because what does it really mean in the day- to-day life of everyone? obviously, it is central to the core mission of the country, but it's a harder issue to run on. it's obviously important, and honestly, donald trump is making once again a very eloquent case for the fact that democracy could actually be quite at stake here. >> it is extraordinary the way you describe it. it is literally at the heart. if the undercurrent, the foundation of everything, but it is hard to pinpoint exactly what if it were taken away, how it would affect you day-to-day. it's a very good point you make. let me ask you about jb vance, who again refused to admit the donald trump lost the 2020 election. then he was given five chances to simply say, trump lost. but he dodged it every single time.
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is the trump campaign somehow fear they are going to lose more voters if they admit that trump lost than they would if they simply told the truth? >> is a weird dynamic. i don't pretend to know what they are thinking, but they are clearly running a base campaign, meaning they want to appeal to the hardest core donald trump supporters, and also, jd vance doesn't want to get on the wrong side of his patron, donald trump here. any daylight he shows here, any doubt is going to get him in some trouble. not only with trump himself, but also with the base. that is outside of the message, that is outside of the certainty they have been going in the beginning. i would like to think that that is a flashing red light, just like some of the other flashing red lights. and it might be something that, you know, if harris does prevail in the end, he will point to him. and the fact that it all happened and that they are continuing to doubt and defy this election going down as it did in 2020, not to mention the january 6 stuff and stuff that is happened then.
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it's just denial. it's a reality distortion field they are running on and obviously getting very close with. i think it could be determinative, and hopefully people will see the truth in all of this, even if donald trump and his acolytes aren't telling it. >> come see us again soon. many thanks. so the early bird gets the vote in many states, and there are clear patterns already been established. new numbers on who is registering and who is already voting. dy voting. subject 1: who's coming in the driveway?
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>> so right now, voters in 36 states and washington, d.c. are casting their early or absentee ballots. over 4 million americans already having their say, and the early voting begins of the battleground states of georgia, north carolina, and nevada this week. donald trump polling even with vice president kamala harris among registered voters. joining us now to dive into this is senior adviser at target smart. tom, good to see you. we all knew this was going to be a tight election. but the momentum seems to us load for kamala harris. keeping tabs on this data ahead of the big day, should they expect things to stay this close, or should the bias toward one side emerge? >> yeah.
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we have been somewhat spoiled here. when you look at the polling over the course of this election year, it has been historically stable and showing a very close and competitive election. there's only been two in this election year where the poles moved. it was the biden/trump debate. and when vice president harris became the nominee. beyond that, it has shown consistently a very close race, generally with vice president harris slightly in the lead. i don't think we will see anything that will tell us anything different in the polls between now and election day other than, yeah, the most likely outcome is a close race that will be determined by which side does a better job getting there voters out. >> and to that point, biden and harris are right now urging voters to get out and vote or at least appealing to the voters that way. we saw the record numbers in 2020 with the pandemic. pandemi
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>> i don't think we will surpass that number from 2020. in 2020, over 100 million americans cast a ballot before election day. it's an unusual year. you saw more democrats voting before election day because frankly, democrats were more covid conscious. the other element we saw is president trump fairly effectively and to his detriment convinced his supporters that morning by mail is fraudulent. used a republican early voting turned out to client. you are seeing this dynamic were more republicans will likely pivot from election day to early voting. we've actually already seen in the data, and we are actually going to see more democrats, especially younger democrats, were more likely to pivot from voting to voting on election day as younger voters traditionally have hired a 2020 this year. >> is that an excitement thing? maybe if it's her first time were just second time voting? is that what it's about?
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>> i can certainly relate. i think there's a big advantage from a campaign perspective. frankly, they want to get there voters out early. they can check them off the list, and then once you voted, the campaigns don't have to spend resources. but i can relate. there's an excitement and enthusiasm about participating in that election day. just younger voters traditionally have taken advantage of that. that said, we are still going to see many tens of millions of americans were there likely won't be that 100 million number, but it could be somewhere over 80 million votes cast. you know, as you noted, we got almost 5 million votes cast so far. we are really just dipping our toes into the water at this point in terms of our understanding of what is happening. we don't want to overreact at this point, but as you noted, we go into this coming week, we are going to see a lot more people this week beginning to vote early. vote early. we will see a lot more people this week beginning to vote
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early. it will tell us a lot about where this race is headed. >> i have to say, i love going on voting day, on election day and getting the sticker. my last question is this, are there any trends we should watch closely? >> yeah, well again, i am looking to see how the parties are pivoting, looking at these key states, one thing i have looked at, michigan, over half 1 million people have voted already in michigan. obviously, we know how important michigan is. at this point, something interesting to me is seen the high turnout from african american voters. we are what donald trump said about detroit a few days ago so seeing that turnout actually surpassing the vote shared from this point back in 2020 among african american voters, certainly a good sign for the harris campaign but again, it is early. >> okay, something we will watch. thank you so much. that will do
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