now xfinity internet customers can buy one line of unlimited and get one free for a year. good afternoon. i'm jose diaz-balart in for chris jansing. at this hour, battling over the blue wall. the major focus today is on

michigan. vice president harris and donald trump both in the state today working to secure the battle ground's 15 electoral votes. who are they targeting to help them win. plus, hamas is not growing stronger after the leader was killed, will the prospect of terror put an opening for many hope is peace. the new test for netanyahu's and israel's leadership. no tax on tips, it's a promise nevada voters have been hearing on repeat. now both parties are highlighting it on the debate stage. >> if you're receiving tips, then you ought to be -- not have to pay taxes on those tips. >> we need to make sure our servers, bartenders and waitresses have that ability for no tax on tips. >> we take a look at how the pitch is landing with workers in reno. we begin with vice president harris and donald trump as the

battle for michigan intensifies. the candidates are making multiple stops in the state today, trying to lock down support in a key battleground where absentee voting is underway, and early, in-person voting kicks off in part of the state this weekend. the latest poll from the "wall street journal" shows a tight race. vice president harris with a slim lead over trump. but within the margin of error. remember, this is a state where the winner in 2020 was determined by a margin of 154,000 votes. nbc's peter alexander is in grand rapids, michigan, covering the harris campaign. also with us, stewart stephens, senior adviser to the lincoln project, and mitt romney's chief strategist for the campaign. and jonathan capehart, associate editor of the "washington post." as harris heads to michigan, her campaign is taking a swing at trying to reach male voters. >> reporter: yeah, jose, that's exactly right, particularly because there's now a growing gender gap in this country.

the latest nbc news poll shows kamala harris has the advantage among women by 14 points. but donald trump has a 16-point advantage, specifically as it relates to men in this country. that would be a doubling of what joe biden did among men. beating donald trump four years ago. and the campaign tells me today that they are beginning a new aggressive effort to reach out so some of those male voters where they are with advertising and sports betting sites like draft kings, the first campaign to advertise on the draft kings web site. fantasy sports sites, sports news sites and key video game web sites. among the ads is one from the hall of fame basketball player, magic johnson, supporting the harris campaign. he describes kamala harris as the underdog in this race. and talks about a clash between two teams between kamala harris and donald trump going forward. interesting, we have been speaking to men throughout the midwest. we were in wisconsin speaking to one man who said the reason he believes, even though he's

supporting harris that trump has resonated with male voters is they think he presents an image of toughness. this man says he views trump as a bully. i spoke to another man yesterday who serves as an electrician, and he says his frustrations are he feels like kamala harris and joe biden pushed to try to forgive student loans among other things. he says, i didn't go to college, why should i be paying for people who did. those are some of the frustrations, one of the reasons the harris campaign is trying to ramp things up. this is not monolithic, men vote differently based on a variety of circumstances, and notably a harvard poll found that 17% advantage goes to harris as it relates to younger male voters. a lot of work to do, cross currents in the waning weeks. >> and, you know, in a memo obtained by nbc news, the harris campaign says the path to winning michigan is through the suburbs with the aim of capitalizing on what it says are

trump's weakness among women and white college educated voters. could this be a difference maker? >> absolutely. and if you go back to '16, hillary clinton was winning enough of these to win, right up until the comey letter, and after that, it shifted just enough to give donald trump this narrow, narrow victory. he won be 46.1%. these are voters that vote in large numbers and are passionately engaged in this race, and, you know, to say the presidency goes to the suburbs has been a truism for, i don't know, probably reagan, if not before. so i think it is a great strength of this campaign. they have the right tone for it. they're not angry. and i just am really impressed by the harris campaign. they seem to have composure, and they seem to have a balance of confidence and still working as hard as they can. and not taking anything for granted. >> yeah, i mean, i want to bring

in nbc's vaughn hillyard. maybe a different way of describing how the trump campaign has been going these last couple of weeks? i think we just lost vaughn. let me go to you, jonathan, if i could. there's another set of numbers from our recent nbc news poll that we want to highlight. 62% of voters think the upcoming election makes a great deal of difference in their lives and family's lives. that's not how you share on the poll question, dating back to the 1990s. what candidate does this, you think help? >> i would think that this would help vice president harris, and i say that because i'm thinking of issues like reproductive health. you know, when you're -- it's been talked about in terms of abortion, but when the vice president and governor tim walz are talking about it on the campaign, they talk about it in terms of freedom.

and i think that's why we're seeing the conversation, not necessarily shift from reproductive freedom to freedom writ large, but also shifting to just the threat that donald trump poses. and so with the closing argument being that, it forces, i think, the electorate to think what exactly does that mean. forcing them to focus on what donald trump is saying, whether it's celebrating taking away a woman's right to choose, and what that means to families across the country. what it means to say that he is talking about turning the american military on americans when he's talking about the enemy within. i think as we get closer, we are 18 days out from election day, i think people are now, who haven't been focused on it like we are, starting to look and pay attention to what both candidates are saying, and i think that that 62% number

should aner to the vice president's benefit. >> jonathan, you know, you talk about the concept of freedom and what freedom means, and it certainly means different things to different people, i guess, but jonathan, there is the overriding issue of freedom as a whole, freedom to pursue the american dream, freedom to be able to have a job that will be able to maintain your family. i'm just thinking, your thoughts, are we in the united states in 2024 in a position where freedom truly is at stake? >> yes. also, i would add in that, freedom from fear. and what we have right now is the nominee of one party who is all about fear and grievance, and division, and you have

another candidate from the other party who is trying to broaden the tent to the point where, and i'm talking about vice president harris, she has been, as much as she has been asking the democratic base for their votes, she is also asking republicans for their votes where she's campaigning with liz cheney and adam kinzinger, and other republicans to show that if she -- if they give her their votes, she is going to be a president for all americans. and so that means, making it possible for anyone in this country to avail themselves of the freedoms to make decisions over their own bodies and their own health care. the ability, the freedom to pursue their dreams, however they define them. there's only one candidate. this is objectively speaking, only one candidate who's speaking to the hopes and

aspirations of the american people, and only one candidate who is speaking to the raw base fears of other people in this country. >> and, by the way, we're watching a harris campaign event that's about to get underway, and we're seeing on the podium there, the governor of michigan, but there are six democratic governors on that stage as we await the vice president. i understand that we do have, vaughn hillyard now with us who is covering the trump campaign. meanwhile, who is trump trying to reach with his activities today? >> he's actually going to be in oakland county, michigan, which is exactly where vice president harris is going to be holding a rally northern tonight. it's one of those suburban counties northwest of the detroit area where republicans used to have reliable vote share there, and we're talking about, you know, a decade, two decades ago, but we have seen this trend in the trump era towards

democrats, and in 2016, hillary clinton won it by about 8 percentage points and joe biden expanded that margin to 14 percentage points. when you're looking at it, you could give his victory in 2020 and give that to oakland county and that margin he was able to grow. you see donald trump as well as vice president harris because they understand the significance of getting those suburban, independent, even reticent conservatives, one-time republicans to vote for kamala harris. this is all coming at a point in time where you have a trump campaign that may target an area, may have a certain message it wants to deliver on, but donald trump, as he said this morning while on fox and friends veers off course. this morning, he suggested, for instance, that abraham lincoln was a great president, though he suggested that he should have settled the differences between the union and the confederacy before the civil war started. well, of course there was no follow up question of exactly how he would do that, whether that would mean slavery had to

exist as part of the supposed settlement. for donald trump, he's just over two weeks out. he has a slate of campaign events in north carolina, georgia, michigan planned, but at the same time, exactly what this closing message is, it's not very specific, yet that may not be incumbent upon him in order to win this election. we continue to see polling show him in a strong position. if his faithful supporters get out there, it's going to be up to vice president harris to counter that by building a coalition that is able to win over suburban voters in the likes of oakland county, north of detroit, but also in detroit proper, and make sure that that democratic base continues to come out for her. >> stewart, just thinking about what vaughn was saying about, you know, the polling, when you look at the polling the last couple of cycles, right, 2016, most of it was off. 2020, closer. 2022, the red wave. it didn't happen. when we see so many polls that show maybe the same race and the

same district or state totally different what do we make of this, stewart? >> yeah, you really should ignore them. there are a lot of junk polls out there. republicans discovered, particularly in '22 that a lot of republican-focused polls could be flooded into the zone. they would tend to be treated like quality polls, and that would lower the average. what does that do? that gives republicans more enthusiasm. it decreases enthusiasm for democrats. it's really just a form of disinformation, and i think it's really incumbent on everyone, as an individual, also the media, to really separate the quality polls from the others. personally, i think it's good to pick one poll that's reliable. like maris is a good poll, and what counts here is the trend. it's like your bathroom scale. it may not be exactly how much you weigh. you want to know if you're gaining or losing weight, and the striking thing about this race is donald trump's inability

to move consistently above 47%. and he won with 46.1%. he lost with 46.9%. so i really am more focused on that number than where harris is. harris's favorable, unfavorable ratio is considerably better than donald trump's. at the end of the day, as we know we have seen it so many times, those last-minute voters are going to be driven by their favorable and unfavorable views more than anything else, which just makes sense. are you really going to wake up in the morning for somebody you have an unfavorable view of? you're either not going to vote or skip them on the ballot. that was not true in '16 when they both had negative that was pretty considerable. you know, i think in campaign, we always ask ourselves, would you rather be my campaign or the other campaign, and nothing's a lock here. i think the harris campaign has an advantage in every aspect of

campaigning here. >> stewart stevens thank you so much. and, jonathan, if you would, stick around. we're going to continue having our conversation after a quick break. 90 seconds, as a matter of fact. when we come back, is the death of yahya sinwar an opportunity for peace or a potential moment for hamas to rebuild its ranks. you're watching msnbc reports. c. but the gains are pumping! the market's closed. futures don't sleep in the after hours, bro. dad, is mommy a “finance bro?” she switched careers to make money for your weddings. ooh! penny stocks are blowing up. sweetie, grab your piggy bank, we're going all in. let me ask you. for your wedding, do you want a gazebo and a river? uh, i don't... what's a gazebo? something that your mother always wanted and never got. or...you could give these different investment options a shot. the right money moves aren't as aggressive as you think. i'm keeping the vest. when we started feeding bogie the farmer's dog, he lost so much weight.

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16 past the hour. hamas today vowing to grow stronger in the wake of leader yahya sinwar's killing, a senior hamas official in a speech earlier saying that this moment, quote, will only increase our solidarity. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu also making it clear today that despite the massive milestone for the country, the war is not over. already sending more troops into northern gaza. netanyahu spoke to president biden who said this earlier today. >> the death of a leader of hamas represents a moment of justice. he had the blood of americans and israelis, palestinians, germans and so many others on his hands. i told the prime minister of israel yesterday, let's also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in gaza without hamas. >> nbc's hala gorani reports from tel aviv. i also want to bring in retired four-star general and msnbc

military analyst, barry mccaffrey. hala, israel released drone footage of the moments right before sinwar's death. what did it show us? >> reporter: well, it showed a wounded yahya sinwar. it looked like he had lost his hand or had been severely injured there, as you can see, it was highlighted by this idf video that was released yesterday. and then he throws a, what looks like a wooden stick at the drone that's hovering just a few yards behind him. and it's interesting that we're discussing this video because the way the israeli media and the israeli public are seeing this video or assessing it is very different from how the arab world is seeing it because if you go on social media, online, you'll find that people are actually saying that this portrays sinwar as somebody who fought until the end, who

wasn't, you know, hiding behind human shields in a tunnel. but i spoke to the former head of the israeli national security council who told me that this was proof that sinwar was alone in the end, that his body guards had abandoned him. depending on who you ask, this either shows a brave sinwar fighting to the end or someone alone and abandoned by his troops. one of the details that the major general who was briefed by someone deeply involved in the operation, that he shared with me was that the israeli military was really focusing on that part of rafah for a good reason. listen to his explanation. >> about six weeks ago, the bodies of six israelis were found in the tunnel in the area. it was clear that the dna of sinwar was there, so the conclusion was that, number one,

he was there with him, and they actually probably served him as a human shield. number two, that he did not have a chance to escape from this neighborhood, so the assumption was that he was there. >> reporter: one of the other things that major general alon told me was that essentially it was a fortuitous encounter. it was a lucky break. but not a surprise that ultimately sinwar was found where he was found ultimately, jose. >> hala gorani, thank you so very much. general, i have been waiting to speak with you as a consequence of what happened here. what did you see here? >> well, profoundly, we see that the hamas chain of command had disintegrated, that sinwar had, at the end of his days, had zero ability to see the battlefield, to coordinate events, to govern

in any way the civilian population, a couple million palestinians are now living in a devastated environment. i think what we've got now is an organization, maybe 10, 15,000 fighters remaining, autonomous, conducting gorilla operations, representing much less of a threat to israel, maybe 20% of what they were prior to 7 october. and the israelis facing a seven front war as they say appear to be dominating and reestablishing deterrence. the problem is they need to break out of this. the israelis cannot govern gaza. there has to be some pan arab solution, not the u.s. we should absolutely not take part in a peace keeping operation in gaza, the west bank, the golan heights.

i think netanyahu has an opportunity for at least a unilateral cease fire. otherwise, the war grinds on. >> you know, general, i spoke to an idf spokesperson earlier on my earlier program here on msnbc today. and i asked him, i said, listen, you've taken out number one. you've pretty much decimated the entire hamas infrastructure. you also did that with hezbollah, but that's another issue. but focusing on hamas, that's devastated. you guys have won the war. why not say we won the war, done. and he said, for 101 reasons. and that's the 101 hostages that are still being kept in hamas, either hands or in some allied's hands. how does this war end, admiral? >> i think we're in a terrible

dilemma in which violence will continue. these voices of hamas, they're in the gulf states or in iran, are completely disconnected from the remnants of hamas battalions fighting in the gaza strip. they've still got probably a lot of ammunition left. they're almost out of missiles to attack israel with. they have no chain of command. there's no reason for them to stop fighting. there's still access to food and cover. i think it's a very discouraging situation. it's possible the israelis can make a unilateral move, which would allow them better opportunity to offer rewards, cash, the about to leave the gaza strip and get some or all of their hostages back, the ones who remain alive, which is a very dubious situation. look, at the end of the day, the israelis have to talk about the

day after the end of the war. and a unilateral cease fire that also involves releasing thousands of hamas fighters, and withdrawing from the gaza strip is not going to happen. unfortunately, president biden and vice president harris have said the same thing. they cannot reengage with hamas at the end of this conflict. so what's the solution? there's none on the table. the arab states are not stepping up to it. i know that secretary lloyd austin and nato talked about nato's potential participation. there wasn't a nato nation that would touch this with an 11 foot pole. it's a grim situation without an obvious answer. >> and general, finally, you know, we talked about hezbollah also its leadership being decimated. we're talking about possibly hundreds or thousands of the top, middle and even low level organization has been wiped out

in the last couple of weeks alone. so what -- where does iran now stand? hezbollah essentially wiped out leadership, hamas essentially wiped out. the houthis are, you know, the u.s. is actually fighting, hitting them as well. what does iran have left, and what happens when iran finds itself essentially cornered and insignificant. >> well, i think you make an important point. we're actually -- the turning point isn't sinwar and gaza dying without, you know, two gunmen fleeing from him. the turning point may be iran trying to rethink what they're going to do. they're scrambling to get a nuclear weapon. i think they're going to be a nuclear state guaranteed within a year. but at the same time, they've seen their surrogates being devastated.

they understand that the idf, the israeli air force could go after their economic oil industry and devastate it. it could take down the nuclear abilities if they had a year or so to work on it. there aren't good options for iran. they're still hanging 20, 30 people a month, internally, to maintain control. so it's possible one could assume that egypt, saudi arabia, the gulf coast states, jordan, would start talking to the muslim iranian leadership and say, look, we need to stabilize the region, the advantage is in favor of the israelis. we've got to come up with a new strategy. let's hope that's the case. secretary blinken has been relentless in seeking peace. maybe the arabs will now step forward and try and argue with the iranians. let's stop this war. >> yeah, and what a tragedy that

has befallen iran, the persian people, just because of this regime that has been in power since 1979, and as you point out, continues to shed the blood of its own people in its attempts to stay there. what a tragedy. general barry mccaffrey, it's a pleasure to see you. i thank you for your time. coming up on msnbc reports, what one community is doing to become closer. well, how about throwing a block party with some celebrity guests? we'll take you to philadelphia where organizers are working over drive to register black voters. voters but did you know prevagen can help keep your memory sharp? the secret is the powerful ingredient, apoaequorin, originally discovered in jellyfish and found only in prevagen. in a clinical study,

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