good day, noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. andrea mitchell is on assignment traveling with antony blinken. with just 11 days left, vice president harris is in deep red texas today, shining the spotlight on the top issue for women voting in the election. for many, reproductive freedom. she will bring the star power of

houston native beyonce, the 32-time grammy winner. there's a 35-point difference between men and women in a new poll. donald trump is in texas today where he will sit down with joe rogan, the podcast host who has topped the charts especially among young men. the latest in trump's effort to lock in young male voters. we begin in texas where yamiche alcindor is in houston and garrett haake in austin. also with us, co-host of "the weekend" michael steele and former democratic governor of montana steve bullock.

yamiche, harris debuting a new closing line that she has a to do list versus trump's enemy list. what is the message here in the closing days of the campaign? >> reporter: good afternoon, jose. the closing message of the harris campaign is that donald trump is a threat to democracy and that he will be someone who will threaten the very principles that america was founded on and that vice president harris has a vision how to move this country forward and that includes expanding the freedoms of all americans. as part of that message, she's in texas. she will be alongside very big names, including beyonce and her mother. she is set to perform here, we are hearing. she's going to hammer home the idea of reproductive freedom and saying the consequences people are seeing in texas, that they could be in pennsylvania or atlanta or wisconsin. she's using beyonce as well as a number of women who she said

have faced dire consequences on the abortion restrictions and putting them center stage. listen to what vice president harris said yesterday in georgia. >> donald trump has become more confused, more unstable and more angry. it's either donald trump in there stewing over his enemies list or me working for you checking off my to do list. >> reporter: that list has been posted on x. formerly known as twitter. she put out a number of things she would want to do. cutting taxes for millions of americans, creating more housing across the country, legalizing recreational marijuana as well as groceries. she has a list that voters can

look up to say, here is my to do list. she's going to be hammering home the idea that former president trump has an enemies list and talking about the idea that people who worked for him see him as a fascist. we will hear that tonight possibly but also next week when we look at tuesday where she will deliver a speech on the ellipse, where donald trump was on january 6 when he delivered the infamous speech before the capitol riot. >> garrett, trump, before he sits down with rogan, he will talk about the border. i want to play for you what he said about that issue, specifically migrants, just yesterday in arizona. >> we are a dumbing ground. we are like a garbage can for the world. that's what's happened. that's what's happened to -- we are like a garbage can. first time i have said garbage can but it's an accurate description. >> garrett, is this the trump

closing pitch? >> reporter: jose, the short answer is yes. it was the opening pitch. in slightly different terms. for donald trump, if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. there's not a problem that he doesn't think can be addressed by cracking down on illegal immigration. he talks about deporting undocumented migrants, the greatest mass deportation plan in history as he calls it. he talks about migrant crime, combining crime and migration in one giant bucket or trash can to borrow his metaphor, to describe our border and immigration system. it's core to his message. he believes it's working, at least with the subset that he is most trying to target, primarily young men. that's why he is here today. he is talking with joe rogan on his podcast. i spent time yesterday when we were with trump on the campus of arizona state talking to some of the young men. i talked to a bunch of guys whom

would be voting in think first presidential election about what they like about trump, how trump connects with them. this voter in particular, 19 years old, was a good example of the way trump is connecting. listen. >> he talks like i talk with my friends. it's familiar. >> reporter: you don't see that in politics? >> no. it's an old guy but he is younger than the other old candidate. >> reporter: he comes off like one of the guys? >> basically. >> reporter: he is not talking about what trump says behind the podium. he is not talking about the traditional news coverage. he is talking about these long form podcast interviews trump has done multiple of where he sits for an hour and a half, two hours with professional wrestlers or comedians or in this case joe rogan, ultimate fighters, and talks about guy

stuff. it connects with some of these voters. excuse me, it connects with some of the young men. this is the core of this question. do these young men become voters? of the four i put on camera yesterday, three had not yet voted, said they plan to. only that young man who i interviewed last said he had cast his ballot. we have 30 million plus votes in right now. watching what these guys do is critical to see which way this election goes. >> the other question i would have is, how many of them have bothered to register? that's also an issue. garrett and yamiche, thank you very much. i want to go into our conversation with michael, i will begin with you. the garbage can. but this goes back with the former president to 2015. when mexicans come over, they are not sending their best, they are sending rapists and

poisoning the blood of america. michael, i guess that trump believes this is effective and is positive for him. who is this effective and positive for? >> you just heard it. you just heard it. that young man. he talks like i talk with my friends. now we know what his friends talk about. they see america as a trash can. they see america as a place where people who don't look like them belong. they see an america where it's dystopia not because the man wants to be a dictator but rather because the woman, who is running, is somehow a bigger threat, because she's a female. this whole bro pro or pro bro

approach resonates because that young man summed up why it appeals the way it appeals. it reminds me of what a young mother of two that i saw at a focus group in 2016 from new hampshire, she's a mother of two, divorced, asked why she supported donald trump, because he is just like me. there's the arc. he is just like me and he talks like i talk with my friends. now we have a better understanding of why donald trump's ceiling is a winning ceiling for him potentially at 47%, 48%. a significant portion of our country likes trump because he is just like them. and he talks like they talk with their friends. it makes it harder then to

figure out how to cut through to that. how do i get in between a conversation about a country looking forward in which you and me, jose, are as much a part of the fabric as anyone else, at the same time they think you and me don't belong here? >> that's such a profoundly interesting way of putting it. michael, i'm wondering -- governor, when the vast majority, i think of impactful comments and conversations seem to have been carried out in this election cycle, in podcasts, governor, is it just a different way that people are communicating about issues? or under the epidermis issues as

well, is it that? is it just simply that trump is such -- he is reaching people in different ways? >> first, let's ground this. recent polling for young people that are going to vote with harris with a 20-point lead, 56-36. what michael says about there's a ceiling there for what trump says is absolutely true. young people care about higher taxes or tax giveaways for the wealthy. young people care about the environment. only 20% of young folks are competent there will be a peaceful transition. there are new ways to communicate to voters. when you look at the underlying

fundamentals with vice president harris in texas talking about, will women have dominion over their own body, a lot of discussion goes to the podcast, that's a ceiling. where we are seeing -- harris has been on a lot of those podcasts, as has tim walz. it's not a shtick the coach. he is everybody's dad. i think at the end of the day, that cuts through because it's not just talking about one issue. it's actually reaching out to folks and talking about issues that matter in their daily lives. >> michael, i was wondering, one of the key aspects of every campaign is get out the vote and how much you are able to organize the organization of people going out to vote.

how do you see, michael, that aspect playing a part in this election which as we are seeing is different than any other election? >> well, i think it's a very important aspect of this election that is largely overlooked by the press, which is doing the horse race analysis and sort of buying into the salted polling that certain republican polling firms have sort of layered into the national polling to sort of look like there's momentum for trump, there's a loss of momentum for the vice president. the governor and i both know, having been on the ballot and myself as a county and state and national chairman, that at the end of the day, if you ain't got no ground game, you got no game. it doesn't matter. the rnc has no ground game. i was looking at some reports from folks i know in

pennsylvania aarea. the gop doesn't have a strategy in place in some of the important areas because, why? donald trump when he installed his daughter-in-law as the co-chair of the party and handpicked the chairman and told him, you will do as i need you to do, they eliminated a lot of the organizing effort that the former chairman put in place. they eviscerated that programming. they went into the fall and come into the fall with very little ground game infrastructure to get out that vote. that's why trump is relying on the ugly hyperbole and nasty conversation to rile up a base that they are otherwise not organizing to turn out. as we started this conversation about those young men and all of this bro breast beating, they have to turn them out. an 18-year-old kid walks up to a

polling place and sees a six-hour line, do you think he will stand in that line? you got to train that voter to do that. that's something the governor and i know is an essential asset for a campaign. i don't care if you are running for president or sheriff, you got no ground game, you got no game. >> interesting. steve, i want your thoughts on that. the "washington post" is announcing they will not be endorsing for the presidency of the united states of america. the "l.a. times" announced they would not be endorsing anyone. there are other newspapers that have endorsed one candidate, mostly, over the other. what do you think this means? how much of an impact do these endorsements carry? >> jose, i think that the endorsements are discussions on

shows like ours, you and michael and i. it's the higher level, yeah, it becomes part of the narrative. as michael says, elections are actually decided on the ground, among people that their lives are too busy to care about does "the new york times" or "l.a. times" endorse? who will fight for my best interest and move me forward? it's a lot of work over the next ten days to make sure that voters get out and are actually voting on -- politics does become local at the end of the day. even though trump tries to nationalize it all. it really is about individuals and getting them out to vote. i think that's what we will see whether "the washington post" or "l.a. times" decides to endorse, doesn't make a lick of difference in this race. >> michael and steve, we need to

continue this conversation. we opened up a series of doors there. i would like to continue it. let's do that going forward. appreciate it. >> that sounds great. the trump campaign is denying a new allegation of sexual misconduct by the former president said to have occurred in the presence of epstein. the trump campaign questioning the timing of the new allegation and how this accuser decided to share her claims. dasha burns has the details. good morning. nbc news spoke with stacy williams, the woman making the accusation. what does she say? >> good morning. this was in 1993. stacy williams made these allegations first on a zoom call called survivors for harris. the harris campaign said they did not organize the call. she spoke on that zoom call, describing that event in 1993. she was with jeffrey epstein, who she met in '92. they had become friendly and were walking past trump tower.

they decided to say hello to mr. trump. she describes how when he saw her he put his hands on her. she says, quote, trump pulled me into him and started groping me. he put his hands all over my breasts and my waist and butt and i froze because i was confused about what was happening because the hands were moving all over me. she says, these two men were smiling at one another and continuing on in their conversation. she said to nbc news that she feels comfortable and ready to tell her story. she can handle the backlash. she needs to tell her story and she feels ready. she says that in part, it did have to do with the election coming up. she wanted voters to have this information. the trump campaign is denying this, writing in a statement that these accusations made by a former activist for obama and on a harris campaign call two weeks before the election are false. the harris campaign says that this call is not organized by

them. williams is a registered democrat. >> dasha burns, thank you very much. we will head to michigan for a look at what's driving many voters to the polls there and what might make the difference in that critical state. we will break down more key states in the closest races that will decide the balance of power in washington. we are back in 90 seconds. you are watching msnbc.

20 past the hour. vice president harris is focusing on abortion with a major address on reproductive rights in houston. the harris campaign is taking that message on the road, highlighting the issue in every battleground state, incluing michigan. this comes as nbc news reporting the harris campaign is concerned about whether it can win michigan. joining me now, michigan democratic party chair lavora barnes. thank you for being with us. when we focus in on michigan, what do you see as the main issues that voters there are battling with? >> it's good to be with you. we always said this was going to be a tight race, and it is. our voters are talking about all kinds of things. the need to protect their

democracy. the economy. they are talking about abortion. women's rights. they are talking about just civility and the importance of caring for one another and caring for neighbors. it's an interesting mix of things that folks are talking about. i think that these voters are very, very much focused on the future of their state and country. they believe kamala harris, many of them that we talked to, is the right choice for michigan. >> i was wondering when this report came out that the harris campaign may be concerned about whether it can win michigan or not, your thoughts on that. second of all, what are the main difficulties or barriers you think the vice president's campaign is facing in michigan? >> i think the vice president's campaign is right to be concerned about every state. this is hard work, winning an election, particularly in

90-some days since she had been at the top of the ticket for a little while. that's why we are doing work in michigan. we have been on the ground. we are working hard to talk to every voter we can. i think everybody knows that this is a divided nation and a divided state, like that nation. we very much mirror what's happening in the country. that means that we have to have conversations with folks who care about their democracy and care about their country, regardless of party. those are the conversations we are having, the kind of thing that some of these endorsements that have happened, republicans that help us drive that conversation, give people a structure to step outside their party and support the candidate who will protect this nation and protect our state. >> just in the last hour, i was listening -- that's what we do, we listen to voices, all kinds of voices. i spoke to a state representative who represents part of dearborn.

he talked about the suffering in the middle east. the bombings in beirut. they say, they want to hear more from the candidates. it's interesting because when i asked them, what message would you have for both campaigns? he says, just be more defined, be clear. i don't know if you could say that the trump campaign has been clear on many issues, this not being one of them. but has the harris campaign been clear enough on these issues? >> let's start with the trump campaign and trump himself has been clear. the words that have come out of his mouth are words folks should heed. he talks about immigrants, about a muslim ban, how he thinks netanyahu should double down on the horrific horrors.

those are words that have come out of his mouth. on the harris side, i think that more definition and with time that will come. we don't have a lot of time. what we have to know is that this is a compassionate woman who has used language that folks should understand is different from the way president biden talked about this issue and she's had great conversations here in michigan with folks about this issue. this is why organizations like engage have endorsed, because they understand the difference between a kamala harris presidency and a donald trump presidency is life and death. >> thank you so much for being with us today. very much appreciate it. we will continue our conversation going forward. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. next, a closer look at the race to 270 and the battle for the control of congress as candidates make their final pitches with 11 days to go. we will bring you breaking news

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and get one free for a year. 30 past the hour. breaking news from virginia where a federal judge has told the state it must restore the names of 1,600 alleged non-citizens who were removed from voter rolls in august.

the state said it was too broad and too close to election day. former president trump and his allies pushed false claims that democrats are trying to get non-citizens to vote. the facts are that it's illegal for non-citizens to cast a ballot in federal elections. it's extremely rare when it does occur. it hasn't stopped the false claim from spreading online and in the world. today, nbc news has new reporting that a coalition of conservative groups are focused on that manufactured threat of non-citizens voting in an effort to undermine the election. joining us now is brandy nedrosney. >> 90 days before the election in august, virginia governor, a republican, glenn youngkin, announced this executive order.

it was meant to clean the election rolls from non-citizens. they removed about 1,600 non-citizens from the rolls. the pron with that was the way they identified the non-citizens was to look at dmv data. a couple of problems. one, user error. if someone didn't check a box that said they were a citizen, then they were wrapped up in this. the second problem is there's a length of time. this data is outdated in lots of cases. someone who is a green card holder gets a license and becomes a naturalized citizen and they are swept up. ironically, who this is hurting was new citizens and disenfranchising them. lawyers showed this evidence. they said it's within the 90-day quiet period. it prohibits any systematic sweeping of a voter roll and removing 90 days before a federal election. the federal judge agreed and now like you said, those voters are going back on the rolls.

>> back to what you call the big lie 2.0. how is this spreading? >> part of it -- the way it's spreading is through actions like these. similar thing happened in alabama. we have seen it in ohio. states all over the country, republican states all over the country are imposing these restrictive laws and purn purge. the problem is this is a solution in need of a problem. non-citizens are not voting. that doesn't happen. it's vanishingly rare. the issue is, where does this come from? it comes from a well-funded, very powerful republican effort. part of that is a grass-roots effort. i have been watching meetings, weekly meetings run by the election integrity network. the only citizens vote

coalition. they are behind project 2025. they have been pushing this lie, this conspiracy theory that non-citizens will vote in elections. this conspiracy theory is rooted in racism, in the great replacement theory. we have been seeing it at donald trump campaign events. you hear immigrants are coming to steal our jobs, to take our hospital beds, to get our federal relief money. it's a dangerous conspiracy theory. not only is it affecting the rolls and purges and restrictive voting laws but latinos in communities, latino get out the vote efforts. people are afraid. >> with this big picture, the question would be, how is it that the country could best ascertain and confirm that people who should not be voting aren't voting? >> that is a tough question.

in part, it's part of the reason this conspiracy theory, this myth is so powerful. as a journalist, how do i prove something is not happening? it's a very powerful lie. unfortunately, it's a lie nonetheless. the hope is that what happened in 2020 -- we expect donald trump and his ally to utilize this lie, we also hope that the courts and sense will prevail and we will get through this as well. >> thank you very much for being with us. good to see you. you can read more of her reporting on nbcnews.com. inflation, immigration, gender gap, democracy, all of these buzzwords have a lot of information behind them. they are driving this election 11 days out. with nearly 33 million votes cast, it comes down to seven key

battleground states. i want to bring in david wasserman. great seeing you. thank you for your time. what are you looking at in these final days before this election? >> jose, the polls could not be closer in these states. we are looking at all of them being within the margin of error if you squint hard enough. trump's best states are arizona and georgia. this race is going to come down to pennsylvania where joe biden won by a point and kamala harris lacks the ties to the state that biden had four years ago. it's tougher for her because she doesn't have some of the union endorsements he had, including the firefighters and teamsters. the question in the final days of the race, i think kamala harris has three tasks. can she convince voters trump's policies will make inflation

worse? the undecided are pocketbook voters. can she shift the conversation to mental and physical fitness for office? the most recent nbc poll had harris at a 20-point advantage on that question. making it more about personality and personal characteristics works to her strength. number three, how does she frame january 6 in her closing argument? we know she's headed to the ellipse. in our polling, independent voters and undecideds, they don't buy that trump is a threat to democracy or backsliding into authoritarianism. it resonates with democrats. it's more effective with them as a law and order issue. does she emphasize his pledge to pardon rioters who attacked police officers on january 6? >> dave, when these final days of the election, one is bombarded by all kinds of different players that are

pushing their polls and their version of what is and is not happening with early voting and with absentee voting. how does one -- how is one able to discern what are the real things and what are essentially just people pushing a political narrative behind numbers? >> yeah. it's really hard to cut through the noise. we are awash in predictions about how this early voting data forecasts the election result. it's all worth taking a deep breath. number one, we don't know based on how many people have voted so far who they are voting for. we have no way of knowing that. number two, the patterns this year of who votes when are totally different from four years ago, because we are no longer in covid. fewer democrats are voting by mail. trump has been less hostile to voting absentee. we see more republicans partake early. i know it's an unsatisfying

answer. we are in the dark until we get the first results from those key counties and states on november 5th. >> i'm wondering, both trump and vice president harris are in texas today. it's been pretty red as far as presidentials, certainly in the senate there have been races that seem to be coming closer to end up being for the republicans. how do you see texas? in florida also, it's been a change there. >> well, i think they have moved in different directions. florida has fallen off the map for democrats. now republicans have a million voter registration advantage. texas is interesting. it has moved towards purple status in the senate race. i don't believe kamala harris is within striking distance of winning the state.

ted cruz's unique unpopularity has closed that senate race to a few points. allred has run a very good campaign. at the end of the day, the hurdle for allred is that democrats are not performing well enough with hispanic voters. in our average, kamala harris is leading hispanic voters by ten points, down from the 24-point margin biden won by. can allred run ahead of harris among hispanic voters, particularly in south texas along the border? he will need everything to go right in order to win the state, which no democrat has done since 1994. >> is it a situation where it's not a number of key battleground states that we should be looking for but rather a battleground state that may help determine

things? >> pennsylvania is the biggest. kamala harris has other paths here that are still alive in case she falls short in one of those great lake states. what's interesting, north carolina is actually looking promising for democrats, perhaps more promising for harris than georgia by a little bit. although, the states are bunched very closely together in the polls. i think it speaks to her fund-raising ability to expand the map. democrats had a communication advantage on the airwaves for much of the summer and early fall in north carolina in a way that closed the gap there. it's possible that we won't know the results from these states for at least a day, particularly if there are ballots from displaced voters that need to be rerouted to their county of origin in order to be counted. >> fascinating conversation. thank you for being with us.

>> thank you. next, a tense meeting about the middle east between arab leaders and secretary of state antony blinken as he tried to jump start cease-fire talks. andrea mitchell has more on what happened next. you are watching msnbc.

lebanon's minister is accusing israel of committing a war crime after an air strike killed three journalists. in southern gaza, a separate strike killed 38 people today. cease-fire and hostage talks are set to resume in doha sunday. william burns will be there representing the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken just wrapped up his latest trip to the middle east and is on his way home. andrea mitchell has been traveling with the secretary and filed this report from london. >> reporter: hi. antony blinken is trying to jump start talks. from the middle east, he came here to london to meet with arab leaders who are visiting here. he ran into sharp criticism of israel from one of israel's longest serving closest allies,

jordan. jordan's foreign minister and deputy prime minister saying that israel is not listening to anybody. that's an implicit rebuke of u.s. policy to try to restrain israel in northern gaza and attacks in beirut. the u.s. is supporting israel's efforts to root out hezbollah weapons stockpiled in southern lebanon. they are not calling for a cease-fire in lebanon but they are critic of the attacks in beirut. in northern gaza, there have been accusations that israel has a policy of trying to move palestinians out in order to have settlers move in. israel denies it. secretary blinken brought it up with the prime minister, with netanyahu and his defense minister on tuesday in israel. now today, the jordanian foreign minister to blinken's face said what's going on in northern gaza is ethnic cleansing. >> a particular moment as you

mentioned, it's difficult. we do see ethnic cleansing taking place. that's got to stop. >> reporter: sharp criticism of israel right to secretary blinken's face as he has been trying to get israel to cooperate more and get the cease-fire talks going, especially now that the hamas terror leader sinwar is dead. they see a window of opportunity. jose, back to you. >> andrea mitchell, thank you very much. next, i will speak to the author of a new book on what he saw in the courtroom during former president trump's criminal trial as trump ramps up his attacks on jack smith. you are watching msnbc. love? it takes a human to translate that leap in our hearts. into something we can see and hold. etsy.

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his january 6th interference election case and arguing that jack smith is unconstitutional and the argument that led to the dismissal of the classified documents case by the former president by a judge in florida. former president trump has already said if he wins the presidential election, he would fire jack smith immediately. jonathan alter spent 23 days inside a manhattan courtroom with donald trump and covering hush money trial and he has written about this in his new book, "american reckoning inside trump's trial and my own." thank you for joining us. i appreciate your time. you've had a running career about politics but did you ever think you would be spending 23 days sitting in a courtroom with a former president who is also a leading presidential candidate? >> no. i mean, it is by historical standards, it's insane! you know, before this, grant got

a speeding ticket driving his car too fast in d.c. and harry truman got a ticket on the pennsylvania interstate for driving his car too slow. that was it. this guy keeps facing the criminal justice system and in this case there was finally some accountability. when i saw him convicted on 34 counts and saw that jury foreperson saying guilty, guilty, guilty, 34 times, i knew i was witnessing some very important american history that, unfortunately, everybody else couldn't see because it wasn't on television. >> you know, it's interesting, because you write about how growing up in a political family, you were exposed so so many different figures of american history early on. when you reflect on characters and character in american politics over the decades, where do you think trump fits in?

>> well, he has the worst character of any man who has held the office of the presidency full stop. nobody else is even close. richard nixon isn't even close. and so he's just a despicable, cruel, lying person. and this is what is so -- the reason i call it, you know, "inside trump's trial and my own," is that i'm having my own american reckoning in trying to come to terms with how this country, which was founded on the idea of not just freedom and democracy, but basic decency, how we could be in this place where we have this man who lacks all of the most elemental qualities of character that the founders knew were important if we were going to have a successful republic. so as this a stunning historical

departure. i do a lot more than covering the trial and the book. i have what else is wrong with donald trump and i'm hoping to fight some of the numbness that people are feeling, they can, you know, send their uncle bob or, you know, cousin susie, maybe they are not trump voters, but they are thinking about not voting, and if you read my book, you can't do something -- you can't not do something to keep this man from coming back to office. he is that evil and i use that word very intentionally. if you take the totality of the record, it's an evil record and, you know, i think joe biden, you know, understood when paul pelosi, not just nancy pelosi, but he is making fun of paul pelosi, who is skull was fractured and when he is still in the hospital near death, donald trump is making fun of him! in the last few days, when he is

talking about the enemy within, he said he would use the military against the pelosi's, including paul pelosi. as biden said, that is a sick "f" thing. this is guy is a sick "f." and we have to really think hard about putting him back in office. >> thank you very much for being with us, jonathan. we appreciate your time. the book is "american reckoning inside trump's trial and my own." jonathan, always a pleasure. >> thank you. >> that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can reach me all kinds of way and i want to thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea will be back on monday. we pick up after a short break. k . now available: boost max! when we started feeding bogie the farmer's dog, he lost so much weight. pre-portioned packs

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