good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. madison square garden goes maga,

but donald trump's long-held dream of playing the world's moss famous arena gets very dark with divisive rhetoric. for kamala harris, another argument that her warnings about the threat he poses to democracy are very real. plus, the opening act grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons. a comedian who offered unfunny, racist, cringe-worthy jokes about latinos and called puerto rico a, quote, floating pile of garbage. could it end up costing trump some critical votes? what the heck is 12-time grammy winner john legend doing at my front door? that's the question for folks in philly after he went canvassing with casey in a state where both the presidential and senate races are too close to call. lots to get to, but we begin with the question that continues to confound supporters of both kamala harris and donald trump, how is this race still tied? the candidates themselves fiery

and feuding over the future of the country in the closest race in modern history. trump finally got his years' long wish for a packed house rally at the iconic madison square garden in new york. in ever escalating attack mode, after a nearly five-hour preshow that we want to warn you, is laced with racist and misogynistic grievances. >> the whole [ bleep ] party a bunch of dee jen rats, low lives, haters and low lives. everyone of them. >> kamala harris she's just -- she's got 85 million votes because she is just so impressive. as the first samoan, malaysian, low iq, former california prosecutor ever to be elected president. >> she is the devil, whoever screamed that out. she is the anti-christ. >> we're running against

something far bigger than joe or kamala, and far more powerful than them, which is a massive, vicious, crooked, radical left machine that runs today's democrat party. >> harris and the dnc projecting messages on to the outside of msg while sending surrogates on to stages and into the streets. her closing message, a warning of what another trump presidency would mean, while promising a calmer, more prosperous future if she wins. >> we have the ability to turn the page on that same old tired playbook because we are exhausted with it. and we are ready to chart a new way forward and, yes, we will be joyful in the process.

>> donald trump hates this country and everything he does is for donald trump. so just saying. he -- his words -- let me give kamala harris' words, she believes america is the greatest country on earth and it's that simple. >> all of it leading to the critical question, is any of it landing with undecided voters? both candidates are back in battleground states today but with just eight days until voting ends and two new polls by the way showing a race until within the margin of error, voters are stressed out or as the "wall street journal" summarizes it, america is having a panic attack over the election. i want to bring in nbc's mike memoli in ann arbor, michigan, where the vice president will speak later today. joining me in studio, tim miller and "new york times" investigative reporter susan craig, co-author of a book about

donald trump called "lucky loser." sue, you and i were just talking about the fact that i was there at msg, you watched much of this rally. what was the big picture take away you had and do you think it's a take away that will resonate with voters? >> it's interesting because this sort of seemed like maybe a bit of a homecoming for him. you know, he has so many grievances with new york city and new york state and to come back and to do this big event meant something, but in the end it feels like all the noise around it just has clouded what could have been something for him. now we are just talking about all of these people that came before him and all of the horrible things that they said and you and i were talking, i don't even think some of them we can air they were that horrible. >> yeah, there is a big part of this we are going to talk about in the next conversation that we have, but, tim, it leaves me to the question we posed at the beginning this have segment which is why is this race so

close? that's what a lot of voters want to know, and, frankly, on both sides. >> definitely on both sides. i was outside with the maga yesterday and they are convinced that donald trump is going to win. >> 100%. >> they don't understand why he couldn't and frankly one of the most dispiriting things of the conversations that i was having was just how matter of fact the people are about believing that the 2020 election was stolen and that they are going to have to win by more to overcome the sort of fake accusations of fraud. that's why they are confused, because they bought into the propaganda that we saw on stage last night, which was the tucker carlson clip you just played. he gave a whole rant about how there is no possible way kamala harris could win because she's so unimpressive. this is why he got fired from fox, for advancing these lies or part of the reason and why fox had to pay $800 million but he's continuing to do that and the people believe t that's on their side. why is the race so close? because there is just a big part of the country that was looking at what they saw last night and

they were like we want this. this is what we want. i think you add that into the fact that trump is benefitting from this remember nostalgia of the pre-pandemic america and i think that kamala harris is suffering from there is a certain group, a small group, but a certain group of people that are like 2019 was better, my groceries were cheaper and they are not thinking about it that deeply and not watching the gross elements that we saw last night and i think he's benefitting from that. >> i think there is an element of what's happening today but like you attacked to a lot -- dozens, i talked to dozens of people waiting in line yesterday before i went inside and my take away was they love donald trump for the same reason they loved him in 2016, but on steroids. let me -- can i just play and then i will ask you about this on the other side, sue. >> did you ever think anybody else but trump? >> not a chance. the man is a businessman, common sense government, the man gets it. he knows what to do. leave it up to him. ask yourself, were you better off four years ago than you are

today? the answer is clear. >> trump has been saying the same thing since the 1970s and '80s, his message has knots changed. so i think that his consisteny proves that he is a better leader than anyone who is running for office in the last 50 years. >> tell me what it is about donald trump that makes you want to support him as a small business owner. >> everything. everything about donald trump. >> not afraid to say what he wants. he is not a politician but he is. >> you feel you did better under the trump administration? >> oh, my gosh, yes. oh, my gosh. i live in depalma. >> and you came all of this way. >> yes, i did. >> why? >> because i love trump. he's got to take our country back because we are in deep trouble. >> wow. >> you are so steeped, sue, in trump -- tell me from that learned perspective of what you just heard. >> i was going to start by just -- before all of that just by saying there is these one-issue voters, it's the economy, it's immigration but when you hear what you saw, which i think is very deep into maga, we are not talking average voters, the people who came out

are die-hards. >> and, by the way, a lot of them flew in from red states. >> right. they are not from new york. >> not from new york. >> to hear that he is a great businessman, so i'm going to vote for him. i mean, my colleague and i just wrote a book we spent a long time on and had all of his financial information. >> and found what? >> and found that he is not a good businessman. of course, he is here, his father, he inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his father who is queens builder famously and has a number of projects there that donald trump benefited from not just financially but donald trump got his start in new york because of his father's money and connections, but for the most part he is invested both that money and the money that he made off the apprentice by and large in the money losing businesses. if people just took the time to understand, you know, where that money went, they would see he is not a good businessman. he doesn't have the sort of know-how that could fix this country and he had a shot at it

for four years and we didn't see any of it. >> there was definitely a big energy at the rally, and, again, because of the people who were there, these are the tried and true, die hard trump supporters. it was real. the cheers, for example, for melania trump even before the former president came out were almost deafening. but i guess you get back to the key question here, tim, in a political sense how does this translate? >> well, i'm not sure it does really, you know, with the people that they need to get. to me this was kind of an ego exercise, the folks that you showed there in those interviews, look, those aren't even, you know, average republicans really. these are the donald trump fan boys and women. that's what -- that's who came out last night. you hear those answers, they are not talking about traditional republican values, cutting taxes. they like donald trump the character, the man, right? and that's who most of the people were that were there last night. i think it was a mistake for him to have this whole lineup of

freaks come on before him and say this extreme stuff, this racist stuff, you had stephen miller is out there, america is for americans and americans only, tucker carlson with the lies i mentioned. to me that projects out to that small group of people we are talking about, the persuadables, former republicans, nikki haley voters, they look at that and they are like that's not what i want. to me i think it was a big ego exercise that might help to motivate action from the trump die-hards, go knock on doors, whatever, for the next week but i don't think they advanced the ball with the broader electorate. >> mike, kamala harris is going to make her closing argument tomorrow at the ellipse in d.c. and that is where donald trump rallied on january 6th, but before that she is in michigan so give us sort of the big picture strategy we are looking at on that side. >> well, chris, there is no doubt that the comments from across the board last night the range of speakers at madison square garden last night dominating the story lines today but the vice president really wants to put a focus on the issue that has been across the

country and especially in the battleground states and especially with undecided voters the top concern which is the state of the economy. she's starting her day in saginaw, the definition of a swing county, president biden only won it by a few hundred votes. she will be talking about not just her own policies, but something that the biden administration had done, talking at a manufacturing plant that received funding from the chips and science act as well as the inflation reduction act, talking about creating jobs and what she wants to do more of. she's later going to be in macomb county which donald trump won four years ago but she's going to make a pitch directly to union voters. we know how important that has been for what has been called the biden coalition, harris hoping to keep them in the fold in this election. then i think it's going to be tonight when she holds a rally near the campus of university of michigan where we will hear her respond more to the events of last night but we got a taste that have message when the vice president choke to reporters just before traveling here to michigan. take a listen. >> i think last night donald

trump's event at madison square garden really highlighted a point that i've been making throughout his campaign, he is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country. and it is not in any way something that will strengthen the american family, the american worker, it is absolutely something that is intended to and is fanning the fuel of trying to divide our country. >> reporter: but harris also wants to do everything she can to demonstrate the same kind of enthusiasm we did see in new york last night. another head liner tonight, another musical performance tonight it will be maggie rodgers after we saw beyoncé over the weekend. >> thank you for that, mike. you know, this was, suzanne, for donald trump, getting to stand essentially on the stage muhammad ali fought there and he thinks of himself as a fighter, elvis played there, two popes

have been to msg, and they weren't shy about why trump wanted to be there or what they thought was the metaphor. here are a couple of the people who spoke before he took the stage. >> it is incredible to be here in the iconic madison square garden. president trump has been talking about this rally for years. they thought they could crush the man who built this city's skyline. >> the king of new york is back to reclaim the city that he built. >> it's going to be the launch point for the center of making donald trump the 47th president of the united states. >> suzanne, i want to read what your paper wrote about this. that a trump victory next week would position him once more as the vengeance seeking spectre idling above the skyline, a keeper of federal dollars that

the city needs and mental ledgers that he would never wipe clean as president. one of the speakers last night said he wouldn't just make america great again, he would make new york city great again. but what does history tell us about a trump presidency and putting aside people and places against whom he might have a grievance? >> right, the rally also did feel -- the speeches that i heard -- like an exclamation point about new york and about how his supporters, the people on stage, viewed how liberals are running cities. there was a lot of talk about basically what a sewer in new york was -- >> california is a four-letter word now. literally the way i heard it last night used in some speeches. >> the other thing, just to fact check some of what was said, a lot of speakers were going on about how he built the skyline. this false narrative. he has a couple buildings in new york decades ago. it was just false. it's interesting to see how they view new york. i do feel there was just so

much -- he's so about grievance and there was so much grievance even in the decision, i think, to do the rally. he does feel he has been treated poorly by the city, by the state and to come back -- >> by the judges, by the legal system. >> you could go on and on. it comes down to that and to be able to have that rally i think was significant to him for those reasons. >> sue and tim, thank you both so much. in 90 seconds the comic, the crude joke and battleground pennsylvania, how that night at the garden might translate on election night after one of many inflammatory remarks targeted a key voting group who may not find it funny at all. not find it funny at all ♪ like a relentless weed, moderate to severe ulcerative colitis symptoms can keep coming back. start to break away from uc with tremfya... with rapid relief at 4 weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation. at one year, many people experienced remission... and some saw 100% visible healing

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so easy. swiffer. wow. the mother of all cleans. love it or your money back! one of the biggest headlines to come out of donald trump's madison square garden rally had nothing to do with trump but his opening act, a comic named tony hinchcliffe who spewed jokes filled with vulgar and racist lines. we want to warn you, his comments are offensive. >> there's a lot going on, like i don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. yeah. i think it's called puerto rico. >> believe it or not, people, i welcome migrants to the united states of america with open arms. and by open arms i mean like this. go back. it's wild. and these latinos, they love making babies, too, just know

that. they do. they do. there's no pulling out. they don't do that. they come inside, just like they did to our country. >> if you want to get a sense of just how worried republicans are about that moment take a look. florida senator rick scott wrote, this joke bombed for a reason, it's not funny and it's not true. florida congressman carlos gimenez called it completely classless. new york congressman des poe seat toe said the only thing that's garbage is a bad comedy set. stay on message. while the trump campaign last night said, quote, this joke does not reflect the views of president trump or the campaign, another spokesperson said today the crowd didn't mind. the challenge now for the trump campaign, how to minimize the damage and say battleground pennsylvania, home to more than half a million eligible latino

voters of puerto rican descent. for the harris campaign to make sure those voters hear those comments. joining us now the author of the latino sanctuary, co-founder of the lincoln project, mike madrid. "politico" national correspondent meredith mick grau who attended the rally yesterday and tim miller is back with us. mike, last week nbc reported that trump seemed to be making inroads with latino men. do these comments hurt the trump campaign? let me get your reaction to what you heard. >> i definitely think that they do hurt the campaign, but i want to put this a little bit into context. donald trump may have actually -- or at least this rally may have accomplished something that the harris campaign has been struggling with for two years, bienen and harris' campaign which is bringing donald trump's levels back down to where they were in 2020. the campaign has had a difficult time doing that, but this type

of narrative does break through. the question will be how much. i think there is a unique reason why. it's not that donald trump said these words which we've learned to roll our eyes at and sort of dismiss, it's that somebody around him made these comments. i think that there's still some sense of shame and sensibility in the american people, certainly undecided voters, that are going to say, wait a second, he is surrounding himself with these dark people around him, these bad people who speak to the worst part of our human nature and i do believe even if it's a one point difference with the latino vote nationally or a state like pennsylvania that will be determinative in the outcome of the election. >> we know with a race this tight a one point swing can be huge. meredith, you reported that the campaign didn't vet this comedy set, but it's not like this comedian is unknown. as a matter of fact, i think he's packed madison square garden twice before. so how did he get this massive

platform and microphone and are they really surprised? >> well, that was a big question an official did say that they didn't vet this comedian and yet this person was the opening act for this big grand finale for the trump campaign in the 2024 election and just a quick search of his name finds that he has made controversial comments in the past. if they didn't go through his jokes or his entire lineup, i think what he's expressing there to the crowd set up what was the entire rally that centered around donald trump's claims about migrants, his plans for immigration and some of the more extreme rhetoric that we've seen on that issue. >> so, tim, before am i republicans protested these comments, the congress members that we showed you earlier, the harris campaign wasted no time, they put out multiple videos on social. here is just one.

>> you know, there's a lot going on. i don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. yeah, i think it's called puerto rico. >> puerto rico is home to some of the most talented, innovative and ambitious people. >> you got the general sense of their response to that. by the way, those three videos that the harris campaign put out got millions of views. i want to ask you first could you imagine in your role on jeb bush's campaign saying to somebody do whatever you want in front of our biggest crowd of the entire campaign? but beyond that, what do you think the impact is? >> i think i would have been fired for that, having anti-puerto rico jokes at a jeb event. bad bunny actually shared that video, which is more important than the campaign putting it out because that's who they're trying to reach. >> bad bunny shared the plan four times with more than of his 44 million instagram voters, ricky martin wrote in spanish to his 18.5 instagram followers.

among the others posting, j.lo, lin-manuel miranda. >> the nikki haley swing voters, but there is another group, democratic constituencies and you're trying to motivate them to come out. a mistake like this could have an impact on that. >> and are not sitting at home on a sunday night searching for a streaming view of the trump rally. >> unfortunately they are not listening to the bulwark podcast. everyone is welcome. i think that this is important as far as breaking through is concerned. the other thing is it's always a weakness in politics when you make a mistake that plays to something that people already think about you. this is why the trump statement this doesn't reflect the trump campaign views or whatever, that's not true, it perfectly represents the trump campaign views and donald trump jr. was

retweeting this guy's stuff after the thing was over. i think because of that it isn't just some random guy, it's somebody that perfectly encapsulates what people are already worried about with donald trump that he looks down and demeans people that aren't like him. >> does it in some way, too, i wonder, mike, give more views for more people about almost simultaneously what kamala harris was doing on sunday, which was putting out an actual plan involving what she would do for the puerto rican community, which is also something that many of those celebrities either liked or put out themselves? >> yeah, look, the beauty of timing. you know, time something one of the very few things that can break you away or break against you in a campaign, especially this late in the cycle, but that side-by-side screen of what was happening, specifically talking about puerto rico, you couldn't ask for anything better if you were the harris campaign. i mean, the truth of the matter is harris' announcement on puerto rico probably wouldn't

have gotten much media traction otherwise standing alone, but with the fact that you have this racist comment made by this comedian kicking off their rally said everything you needed to know and that contrast was exactly what the harris campaign needs to impart in the minds of viewers, just now so many of these latino voters are just now turning into this race. to have this be what is going to be branded in their minds over the course of the next week, money can't buy that kind of impact. it's going to have -- i don't think there is any doubt it's going to have an impact, the request he is how much there's going to be. >> before this all happened, meredith, i was outside and i was talking to a lot of trump supporters. they know this is who trump is, right? they know him and they actually believe that -- and i don't want to speak to these specific comments because they hadn't been made yet, but incendiary things are part of his appeal. let me play that for you. >> he speaks his mind and a lot of people view that as a negative thing, we view that as a positive thing.

>> so it doesn't offend you when he says things that people criticize as being extreme. >> like what? >> i think they're definitely extreme and i don't agree with all of them. that's 100% true. >> we didn't hire a preacher, we hired a leader, okay, not a preacher but a leader. >> so if he says something -- >> people need to back off. >> so i wonder, meredith, look, the campaign again knows who their base is and so i wonder if in any conversations that you have had that that was the focus, they were going to appeal to the people they knew were going to be inside that room but then i also wonder could they not have known that these kinds of things would blow up and probably not to their advantage? >> it's funny just listening to those interviews now, i talked to a lot of people who were in that arena and they said very similar things. they like that trump says it like it is, but, look, this event was geared every step of the way to trump's base of voters and, you know, they're

ginning them up with, you know, messages from people who are stars of the maga movement, elon musk or don jr. and yet this election is going to be decided on the margins by people who still haven't made up their minds, some of them are more moderate voters and this whole event was geared towards putting the maga movement and the trump campaign and presenting it on the national stage. so my big question is who are they trying to target with this beyond the base and his super fans who packed that arena last night. >> well, one of the biggest ovations came for rudy giuliani so this is the crowd that would do that. that's, you know -- take that for what it is. mike, meredith and tim, thank you all so much. up next, the battle for senate control.

where the parties are now spending the most campaign cash and the key races to watch on election night after this. but first, the former president, the head liner of the night at madison square garden, musing about his parents. >> my father is looking down on me right now, he was a tough guy but he was like legit, and i know my mother is in heaven. i'm not 100% sure my father, but it's close, but he's looking down at me right now and he's saying, how the hell did this happen to my son? he is not a bad person. i'm a good person. all we want to do is straighten out our country. t ouour country. f i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms... ...with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms after trying a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq works differently. rinvoq is a once-daily

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because we need to tackle our drug and homelessness crisis just like mark did as our interim mayor. mark farrell endorsing prop d, to bring the changes we need for the city we love. so imagine getting a knock on your door, opening it, and john legend is on the other side. that's exactly what happened to some battleground voters in pennsylvania this weekend as the legendary singer worked the ground game with senator bob casey who is locked in a tight reelection race. nbc spoke exclusively to legend after his volunteer stint. >> i believe black men are going to show up and make the right decision. i believe they're going to show up for their communities, to protect their families and their communities from -- from another term of donald trump. we are out here because we believe in our candidates and what they stand for and what they're planning for the country. we are well-known people and

hopefully we will get enough attention on the candidates so that they can go out there and win these elections. >> of all of your songs which one do you think depicts this election? >> "glory." >> whether you live in pennsylvania there or michigan, nevada, any battleground state for that matter just try going a day without getting a home visit from canvassers, seeing a political tv ad or a, hi, the campaign needs your help text message. nbc's ali vitali is looking at the balance the power in the u.s. senate as republicans try to take back the majority. i know you've been doing a deep dive on the big races. what did you find? >> i will try to bring a little glory to this big board in honor of john legend. you can see the spending, god bless the swing state voters in any of these places. look specifically at first ohio, pennsylvania, montana, the thing that these three things have in common in addition to the fact that democrats are outspending republicans there is these are your top three must keep states

for democrats who are battling it out in sherrod brown and jon tester's case in trump county and bob casey's case in the most battleground of battleground states across the map. then we have our what if board. you can assign some states straightaway, florida although it saw minimal spending for people like you and i who know the state of florida, there has not been a lot of spending on the republican side because they feel good about where rick scott s you can also probably keep maryland in the democratic column. at that point you put texas, although it is something that many people want to say is one of the key races between ted cruz and colin allred, cruz has been difficult to beat in texas. the fact that he has trump as someone who could pull him up even higher in a red state is notable but i want to look specifically at ohio where sherrod brown has to play defense here if democrats have any hope of holding on to a senate majority. brown, let's assume he is able to keep personality over party politics in that state, with he

should see him back in the democratic column. again, that one is going to be really tight. of course, in montana that is one of the other ones for jon tester who really has to outperform what vice president kamala harris does at the top of the ticket. he's going again a stop republican recruit in tim sheehy. this is the state that republicans say is going to help them take the majority. they say the same thing about ohio even if we put it in that column we could easily drag it back over here and that's an early night for senate republicans in taking it back. of course, if you put those states back into flux then it becomes an even more complicated way but there are quite a few paths here for republicans to try to take back senate control and so i know we spend a ton of time at the top of the ticket but this is once again a story of how a very tight margin in congress could flip on a time in any of these competitive states. >> and could and maybe will go past election night. >> most likely, yeah. you and i both have our coffee, right? >> we do. ali vitali, thank you so much.

great to have you in studio. >> absolutely. coming up, j.d. vance leans into donald trump's enemy within comments. what he said about some democrats being more dangerous than foreign adversaries. danges than foreign adversaries ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ woah, limu! we're in a parade. everyone customize and save hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual. customize and sa— (balloon doug pops & deflates) and then i wake up. and you have this dream every night? yeah, every night! hmm... i see. (limu squawks) only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ upset stomach iberogast indigestion

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hundreds of ballots were destroyed this morning after two ballot boxes were set on fire in portland, oregon, and vancouver, washington state. in portland police determined

someone put an incendiary device inside the drop box, but fortunately a fire suppressant inside protected nearly all the ballots, just three of them damaged. a few hours later, though, in washington state a similar incident with a drop box, only this time the fire suppressant did not work. hundreds of ballots there were destroyed. and it was the capstone tour rally filled with inflammatory remarks. former president trump used his appearance at a packed madison square garden to double down on his message that democrats are the enemy within. >> when i say "the enemy from within" the other side goes crazy, becomes a whole, oh, how can he say. they've done very bad things to this country. they are indeed the enemy from within. >> it was a message his running mate, j.d. vance, also defended and amplified over the weekend. >> what he said and i do agree with this, what he said is that the biggest threat we have in

our country it's not a foreign adversary because we can handle these guys. we can handle foreign conflicts. we can't handle, look, under nancy pelosi's long life in public leadership the united states has gone from the preeminent industrial power of the world to second next to china. that fundamentally belongs on nancy pelosi's shoulders. >> nbc's garrett haake is on the ground in atlanta ahead of trump's rally there tonight. just if people were wondering, nancy pelosi isn't running for president or vice president or -- anyway, what else did j.d. vance have to say? >> reporter: yeah, chris, i was struck by that comment, too. i have covered nancy pelosi for a long time, she is an incredibly powerful politician but he describes remarkable power to her in that answer there basically making her solely responsible for industrial decline of america. look, j.d. vance has distinguished himself as probably the foremost explainer of what donald trump has said

and also what he would like for donald trump to have said, and i think those are important distinctions because he defends donald trump's comments sometimes and sometimes twists them into things that donald trump didn't say. there's another good example of that from the same interview this weekend. listen to this. >> he said on friday special counsel jack smith should get thrown out of the country. he's threatened to arrest election officials who cheated, we know that he believes a lot of people cheated that did not cheat. >> no one disagrees with that -- >> no, you do based on the way you asked the question. >> based on the fact that he has accused people that didn't break the law of breaking the law when it comes to the election and if you want to revisit that i'm happy to, but liz cheney he said should be put before a war tribunal. none of that sounds fascist to you at all? >> of course it doesn't. >> reporter: there's not much i could add to that is correct chris. i've also covered liz cheney for a long time. i can't think of anything she's done to be deserving of being

put in front of a military tribunal, either. but this is the challenge that vance has, he's going in front of more mainstream press to take difficult questions from nonfriendly media, something that donald trump hasn't done in weeks. >> garrett haake, thank you for that. of course, j.d. vance is running against tim walgz, the governor tim walz. we want to show you a moment, this happened in traverse city, michigan, when gwen walz was with first lady jill biden. she had made a recipe of her great-grandmother's ginger snaps, gwen walz had, and she said i have some treats for you guys because it's a treat to be with you. i've spent a lot of time on the campaign trail. no candidate or candidate spouse has ever offered me any cookies. i did once get fashion advice from the wife of a candidate,

but that's a story for another day. gwen walz and first lady jill biden there. up next, president biden casting his ballot today for the race he used to be running in. what we know about his plans for the final stretch of kamala harris' campaign. plus decision time for the undecided. we've been talking with these voters for months now, so with eight days to go have they finally made up their minds and what is taking so long? p their what is taking so long

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president biden is now officially one of 43 million americans who have voted early this election. he cast his ballot in rehoboth beach, delaware, this afternoon, as he continues a low profile campaign role on behalf of his vice president. nbc's allie raffa is at the white house, what more can you tell us? >> reporter: the president casting his ballot for his vice president, his successor at this wilmington polling location, with first time voters, as well as congresswoman lisa blunt rochester, a close personal friend of the president, running for the open seat in delaware. while at the location, he took questions from reporters, he called this a sweet, not a bittersweet moment, despite obviously the scene playing out very differently than what the president expected a few months ago, obviously before the pressure campaign by his fellow democrats to drop out of the 2024 race.

you'll remember, chris, when he did do that, when he did drop out, he suggested he would be on the campaign trail, campaigning for his vice president regularly. as you mentioned, he has been keeping a relatively low profile, and when asked whether he wished that more candidates would use him as a surrogate, the president pushed back. listen to his comments here. >> i've done a lot of serious stuff, the fact of the matter is i've also had to be president at the same time. i've been all over the battleground states, i've been campaigning. i also have to continue my job as president. >> reporter: now, the president has a few virtual campaign calls this week, and he has been and continues to use these official events as president to promote his vice president, but at this point, there's no official campaign travel or events that he's going to attend on his schedule. that's something we continue to ask the white house about, especially now just eight days from the election, chris. >> allie raffa, thank you.

throughout the presidential campaign, nbc news has been checking in with undecided voters as they try to decide who to cast their ballot for or in some cases, whether they'll cast a ballot at all. now eight days out, our dasha burns tracked some of them down to see if they have made up their minds. they're the most coveted voters in america. >> i'm still deciding. >> reporter: undecided voters across the seven battleground states. nbc news has been interviewing them throughout the campaign. >> i'm still kind of undecided. >> reporter: now with days left to go, we're following up. have they made their decision? >> it's an important factor. >> reporter: kate snow spoke to lynn of pennsylvania back in september of the trump and harris debate. her thoughts then. >> i'm not happy with either candidate. >> reporter: we spoke to lynn again, the lifelong republican is weighing pocketbook issues and her conscience. she still considers herself

undecided. but, if you had to make a decision right this moment with what you know right now, what do you do? >> i'd have to vote for kamala. while i think that she's misguided, as is her party, i don't think that she's an awful human being. and i think donald is. >> reporter: hannah reid told us after the debate that vice president harris still had to win her vote. >> she has a lot of questions she needs to answer. >> reporter: hannah also remains undecided, but is leaning toward vice president harris. >> policy-wise, i would vote for kamala. >> reporter: some of the undecided voters we spoke to earlier in this election, didn't want to share where they are right now, others didn't respond to our request for an interview. this is what denise lewis of arizona told jacob soboroff after the debate. >> it feels like a connection between you and vice president harris that wasn't there before tonight. >> reporter: now she's leaning toward harris and still

uncertain. why are you undecided? i'm not hearing what i need to hear. it might come down to a mental coin toss. >> reporter: traditionally only about half of undecideds will vote. in the last two elections they have broken for trump. >> what was happening is you had a lot of republicans who were pretty reluctant to vote for trump and therefore were noncommittal until the last month. >> reporter: in september, pennsylvania restaurant owner appeared to be swayed a little. >> you told me about 51% trump, 49% harris after the debate tonight, moved a tiny bit for you. >> reporter: but now, i'm between going to the ballot box and choosing the day of. it's hard for me to stand out but i don't like a young candidate. >> the choice for many isn't between candidates but between voting and staying home.

dasha burns, nbc news. still ahead, we are all over the campaign trail for a busy hour coming up. donald trump set to appear in battleground georgia just moments from now while kamala harris heads to the critical blue wall state of michigan. we've got it all for you. keep it here. help you understand how to get the most from medicare. if you're eligible for medicare, it's a good idea to have original medicare. it gives you coverage for doctor office visits and hospital stays. but if you want even more benefits, you can choose a medicare advantage plan like the ones offered at humana. our plans combine original medicare with extra benefits in a single, convenient plan with $0, or low monthly plan premiums. these plans could even include prescription drug coverage with $0 copays on hundreds of prescriptions. plus, there's a cap on your out-of-pocket costs. most plans include dental, vision, even hearing coverage. there are $0 copays for in-network preventive services, and much more. get the most

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