>> quick programming know before we go. today, vice president kamala harris is sitting down with their very own reverend al sharp and in atlanta for an exclusive interview to discuss early voting in georgia and the importance of reaching black voters. atlanta air today at 5:00 p.m. east turn on msnbc. stay right where you are because there is a lot more news coming up on msnbc. msnbc.

a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters. welcome to alex whitney reports. the race to the white house. and according to the polls, it is a fight to the finish as a close in on 16 days until election day. vice president kamala harris is right now at a church in jonesboro, georgia. earlier today, she spoke in a missionary job just church in stonecrest, georgia. enter this afternoon, she is going to sit down for that exclusive interview without sharpton. we are going to have more on that a little bit later. today is also the vice president's 60th birthday. happy birthday, ma'am. she got a social media shout out from her running mate, governor tim walz. the harris campaign is energized after a week of celebrity appeared's. among them, mark cuban and usher at a get out the vote event in

georgia yesterday. and that's when vp harris warned voters about donald trump's plans for healthcare. >> the man is going to threaten the health insurance of 45 million americans based on a concept? and take us back to an insurance company has the power to deny people with pre- existing conditions? do you remember what that was? well, we are not going back! new fallout today from trump's bizarre remarks during his rally in latrobe, pennsylvania. he appeared to discuss the anatomy of the late golfer arnold palmer, and lobbed profanity laced attacks on his political opponents. >> this man was strong and tough, and i refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other boroughs, they came out of there and said, oh, my

god. that's unbelievable. tell kamala harris that you have had enough. that you just can't take it anymore. we can't stand you. you are a -- vice president. >> wow. here's how surrogates from both campaigns reacted on the sunday talk shows. >> don't fit again, we don't have to say it. i get it. when president trump is any rally, for two straight hours, you are questioning his mental acuity. joe biden couldn't do that for five minutes. he has fun at the rallies. he says things that are off-the- cuff. i have been in those events and those arenas and people have a great time at those arenas. you can cherry pick a few words or lines out of a two hour event. >> whether you are conservative, whether you are progressive, moderates, we have major issues facing this country. is this the kind of human being

that we want as president of united dates? >> it is another busy day of campaigning for folks. both sides will be in pennsylvania later today with trump attending the steelers/jets game later on. senator jd vance is in wisconsin, governor tim walz is in michigan. second gentleman doug emhoff also in michigan. and here's part of the report of the race in michigan from's nbc's steve carnegie. >> look at the average there. harris, by 1/10 of one point. really doesn't get closer than that. let's dive into michigan, what we will be looking at on the home stretch in election night. the key thing, go back to the last election year. you just heard from barack obama there. before donald trump came on the scene, rack obama and the democrats won handily. trump flipped it barely in 2016, and then moved a little bit back to the democrats in 2020. between 2012 and 2020, the trump era, the state as a whole got a lot less democratic.

>> a new nbc news poll shows more than half of voters saying they are less likely to vote for a candidate who says trump won the 2020 election. and you today, virginia becomes the 17th they were early voters can now cast a ballot in person. the nbc news tracker showing more than 14 1/2 million votes have already been passed. well, we have reporters in place for you across the country ready to go over all these new developments, and we are going to begin in georgia were vice president harris is campaigning on this, or 60 of birth day. it's good allie roth who is joining me from atlanta. what all is on the vice president's schedule today? >> yeah, vice president harris here on this national day. as you mentioned, her 60th birthday day, courting the votes of georgia's most faithful here in the atlanta suburbs going to two church events. today delivering remarks, and that her first that she delivered today, she was actually interrupted by the crowd so they can her happy birthday.

but she talked about the importance of faith in everyone's life. she talked about how it could encourage members of the congregation to vote. and this is her second day here in atlanta. she had a rally last night with r&b star usher, and the main focus, and her message during that rally was on reproductive rights, and especially george's abortion ban passed in the aftermath of roe's reversal. but one notable moment from that rally was when harris, as we have seen her do for the last few days, really leaned into this new attack line that she has against former president trump, seizing on the fact that he has canceled recent media interviews and appearances because, in her words, he is, quote, exhausted. listen here. >> when he does answer a question or speak at a rally, have you noticed he tends to go off script and ramble?

and generally, for the life of him, cannot finish a thought. and he has called it the weave. but we here would call it nonsense. >> harris will sit down with our colleague, reverend al sharpton this afternoon for a highly anticipated interview, and then we will see her go off to pennsylvania, she is going overnight. we expect her tomorrow to begin this blue state to her. she's going to be going to pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin all in one day to campaign with republican former congresswoman liz cheney to court those important trump skeptical republicans, trying to get everyone out to vote before election day. >> take you so much. we are going to focus on pennsylvania now as we go to gillian frankel, who is in lancaster. that is where donald trump has a pretty full day.

gillian, what can we expect to hear from donald trump at this town hall later today? >> it's a busy day here, and it's been a busy weekend in battleground pennsylvania for the former president. for we get in today's schedule, i want to back up to his rally remarks in latrobe yesterday where we heard the former president use increasingly intense, dark rhetoric to go after vice president kamala harris. i want you to specifically hear how he went after her current term as vice president, i do want to warn some of our younger viewers -- i know you play this earlier -- i want to warm younger viewers that this has some pretty strong language in it. let's take a listen. >> this one, kamala harris, is further left than them. so you have to tell kamala harris that you had enough. that you just can't take it anymore. we can't stand you. you are a -- vice president. the worst. you are the worst vice president.

you are fired. get the -- out of here. you are fired. get out of here. >> and alex, she's gotten pretty close in that rhetoric before, yesterday really ramped up the intensity. looking ahead to today, he will be here in lancaster in just a few hours for a town hall. he does typically tend to take questions, but we haven't yet figured out who will be moderating this event. later tonight, is off to the steelers jets game in pittsburgh as he and harris compete for these critical battleground state voters in this final push to november 5th. >> gillian, i want to thank you for all of it, including that sound bite, you want to play off that now, despite listening to it was just weird. i joined now by molly ball, senior correspondent for the wall street journal and meryl kornfield, staff writer for the washington post. molly, you first on this. you heard it. you have any sense as to whether or not this is some

bizarrely effective strategy for him, or what? >> you know, i have been covering donald trump's political campaigns for nearly a decade now, and he tends to say whatever sort of floats into his brain. i will say that when you ask his supporters about the various odd things that he comes up with, or the strange rifts that -- the vulgarities and so on, what they will often tell you is a man is an entertainer, and he is there to entertain the crowd, and that is something that people feel like they come for when they come to these rallies. is going to speak for a very long time, he's going to go off on a lot of weird tangents. he's not going to simply read what's on the teleprompter. i don't think it is some kind of, you know, three-dimensional chest genius try to g, it is something that i think is part of his political brand at this point. >> okay, cool, give him a reality show, but the oval office? senator lindsey graham was asked about the heated rhetoric on met the press this morning, and he had this as an answer.

>> the democratic agenda that they are going to push for this country turns our country upside down. it fundamentally changes who we are as a nation, and we are going to stop it at the ballot box. >> senator, is that i am rhetoric the way to win over disaffected republicans? >> we are winning and going to win, not because of what donald trump is saying, but because of what they have done for 40 years. >> okay. convincing answer there from graham, as he says republicans won't win because of what the candidates, donald trump, is saying. >> i don't know that the answers convincing, but it is definitely consistent with what other republicans are saying. we heard this answer from speaker johnson today when he was asked about what we heard from trump at the rally about what he had said about a golf star and the tangents he goes

on at his rallies. republicans can keep on hounding the point that it's not about personality, it's about policy. i think that they can win on this message of, are you better off than you were four years ago? >> meryl, speaking of anger out on the trail, i'd like to highlight your new piece for the washington post. here's part of it. advanced events, a back and forth with media is redmeat for the crowd. and then you talk about this unusual scene of vance taking questions from reporters in front of a rally crowd there. here's a quote. a detroit free press reporter was booed as she identified herself and her employer out of a question about protesting the november election outcome. a student journalist was similarly heckled for asking vance about how we would ensure safety from gun violence on college campuses. a black reporter asked why black voters in michigan should cast their ballots for donald trump and the mostly white crowd shouted back answers. how did you interpret this?

>> i think it is so striking to see this on the campaign trail. i think that most people don't get to see this in action, to see a politician faced questions from reporters of such diversity, especially out on the campaign trail when you are going to local communities and talking with local reporters. we heard their questions, and then we heard the crowd's response. and something that is so unusual about these kinds of interactions with politicians and reporters that tend to happen in the bowels of the capital, or -- and behind closed doors in campaign offices, not really in front of fans like this. and the scene of how the crowd responds is just as interesting as what vance ends up saying with his answers. and that is the point of the piece, was to describe what this looks like for people who don't get to see it. >> we have new nbc reporting that harris has no plans to

campaign again president biden before election day. she has had some trouble defining how exactly she will be different from president biden if elected, so is this a smart play? >> i think so. the reason she is on the ticket is because democrats didn't believe that joe biden could win this election, and certainly, she is doing better now than he was doing before he dropped out. but she has struggled to differentiate herself, as you say. there are a lot of democrats who are worried about that dynamic, who worry about this answer that she has continuously given to this question, which is simply that she is a different person than joe biden, and perhaps has some different ideas for policy. what she really has not put any daylight between herself and this administration, and a lot of democrats are feeling like, you know, this is the latest in a series of change elections, and the biggest thing that trump has going for him is simply that he is not the incumbent in a time when the

incumbent party is extremely unpopular, when people are dissatisfied with the direction of the country, they are dissatisfied with the economy, they are dissatisfied with the situation at the border. and so, you know, every time kamala harris doesn't put distance between herself and joe biden, i think the trump campaign is celebrating. >> we are going to have more on that new nbc poll about the issues voters care about the most. we are going to unpack the results when we are back in a short 90 seconds. short 90 seco

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>> while the race for president is in a dead heat with just over two weeks to go, we are getting a clearer picture of what voters want and don't want from the candidates. a new poll out today finds a majority of voters, 52%, say they are less likely to support a candidate who says donald trump won the 2020 election. that same number of voters say they are less likely to support a candidate who supports the overturning of roe versus wade. despite those numbers, the poll shows donald trump and kamala harris tied at 48%. i'm joined by national politics reporter bridget bowman. bridget, welcome to you. here's the big question. how can voters be so opposed to donald trump's record and the race still be tied? have you figure that out? >> that's a really good question, because it looks like

there is a disconnect here. this is where the margins really matter. that the 50% number that you mentioned, that's not that far off from the 32% harris was often our poll. so i'm trying to delve into, what are the gaps here when you dig deeper into the numbers and look at some of these key swing groups, you start to see some of the difference here. so take independence. they are going to be so important in this election. a majority said they are less likely to vote for a candidate who said trump won and 2020, and a higher shed their less likely to support a candidate who backed the dobbs decision. only two points in our poll. so why is that? it is possible that voters are maybe just weighing different issues as they are figuring out who to support. for example, we often see the economy and cost-of-living as a very top issue for voters. trump consistently has an advantage over harris on that issue. are these voters may be prioritizing this more than

some of these other issues? that is something that is kind of an open question and is really key to this election as well. i do think these numbers provide some clues about maybe what can move these voters if they hear certain messages, can they start to shift? this race is just so close that we have to really watch and be careful of how we are talking about and looking at these numbers, but they do provide what could maybe move them at the end of the day. >> so the economy is a major motivating factor, some of the more popular proposals have to do with bringing down costs, and that makes sense. a majority of voters to be more likely to support a candidate who is for expanding domestic oil and natural gas production, a federal child tax credit of $6000, and taxing large corporations that are making record profits. is that just the voters way of saying it is all about the economy and cost-of-living?

>> yes. i think that's exactly right. i think the fact that you see these policies pop is the most popular ones shows that this is a top concern for voters. is one of our pollsters put it, talking about these numbers, they are just looking for somebody to do something on this issue, and they are really open to different policies. and we didn't identify this as a democratic policy, this is a republican policy -- we just ask them on the substance and the fact that voters are very open and could maybe support policies that are kind of clearly from different parties tells you they are just looking for somebody to do something about this, and they are kind of open to the specifics and just looking for action. >> here's kind of a funky question. should we pay more attention to what issues will make voters more likely or less likely to support a candidate? >> that is a good question. and i think it is both, right? and it kind of depends on the candidates, depends on the issue. so we often see them pulling and you often ask voters, is your vote more for or against a candidate? they are factoring a lot of issues on a think about that, right? we do know that there are voters that prioritize certain

issues over everything else. we asked about this in our poll as well, and we saw that abortion really popped here, that a higher share of the single issue voters focus on abortion. so are they -- that is one where it could be both, right? it could be more likely to support harris on the proactive were less likely. kind of just depends on how they are thinking about it. >> biggest take away from this poll for you, when you walk out of that studio and think, this is really the most important thing -- what is it? >> the economy is what really stuck out. the openness, the fact the voters are telling us over and over again that this is really just a top issue for them, i think it is a real question of whether vice president harris were vice president trump and make the case here on who is better on this issue. trump has had an advantage. and harris cut into that in the final days? >> bridget, have you seen any of that? we have already heard that donald trump was leaving the

economy. is she cutting in? >> she has cut in a little bit. i think in our most recent poll on cost-of-living, trump had an 11 point edge on this issue. it's kind of moved a little bit on the margins. she has narrow the gap a bit, but there still work to be not on this, for sure. >> that means you are on it, bridget bowman. it probably shock you, but did he shock his supporters? donald trump's questionable comments at a rally in pennsylvania yesterday, next. e liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i saved hundreds. with the money i saved i thought i'd get a wax figure of myself. oh!

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>> 16 days to go, and it was a tale of two rallies last night as vice president harris focused largely on economic policy and reproductive rights, and former president trump hurled increasingly explicit insult and encouraged the crowd to do the same. >> together, we will build a brighter future for our nation. together. we will build a brighter future that includes what i call an opportunity economy. so that every american has the opportunity to own a home, to build wealth, to start a business. >> such a horrible four years. everything they touch turns to -- >> okay. with me now, don calloway, democratic strategist and host of the caucus room podcast, publican strategist isabel percy oh, and david jolly.

a.k.a., my sunday family. good to see you guys. i rolling whatever, fill in the blank. in the same speech, trump said that the christian leader franklin graham had asked him not to use bad language, trump said the stories wouldn't be as good. why are crude and personal attacks so important to him? >> because it helps him make up for the lack of a plan. what we saw from kamala harris in the last seven days was a broad opportunity for everybody, and specifically she put the rest all the talk about black men within broad opportunity plans, specifically for black men. we've heard no plans from donald trump. we've heard even him admit that he is concept of a plan. over 10 years, 50% of the american public has been bamboozled i this bravado, by this nastiness. as you can see from my mama's

living room, i am here in the midwest. i had to get out of the bubble these last few weeks, and if you like folks of all colors and all political stripes are over the act. but that's why he does that stupid stuff, because he has no real substantive plans for the american teacher. >> your mom's home is lovely and i'm sure she's glad to have you there. that's move on with you, susan. the language that trump is using, it certainly rallying his base. they did shout back exactly what he was looking for, but is it motivating anybody else to vote for him? does he have enough votes without reaching moderate republicans? >> well, that is what we are going to find out in 16 days, alex. the fact is, is that he treats his rallies not just as a political event, but as an entertainment venue. that is why the vulgarity works. he needs to feed off of the audience. that is what gets his ego going. i wish -- to don's point, he could even think that strategically. oh, i better pivot from policy.

i think he just needs the recognition from those crowds. but that is just another -- you know, when we see this in the media, we know that he is not appealing to try and expand his base. what are you looking for is the voters who may be haven't voted in the last 10 or 20 years to come in. that is what he is hoping for. this is a base turnout for donald trump, which will be very unfortunate for donald trump since he is not in control of it and he has outsourced it. again, this vulgarity is just a way to feed his ego. and frankly, to be talking about it. that is how he sucks the air out of the room. >> well, there's more, david, because trump also had a bizarre tangent about golf legend arnold palmer who is from the pennsylvania city where trump was speaking. i'm going to apologize in advance, but here it is, everybody. >> arnold palmer was all man. and i say that with all due respect to women -- and i