the rachel maddow show starts right now. hey, rachel. >> i love that image, those photos of president biden today. waiting in line. there or is part of me who thinks nobody should have to wait in line to vote, but if any of us do, seeing the president do it is a democratic thing. >> the most powerful man in the world is a thing others do to exercise their right. >> that is right. a citizen like all of us. thank you. much appreciated. thank you for joining us. tomorrow night, kamala harris will give her prime time speech . tomorrow night, when we got from election night. it will be live from the ellipse in front of the white house which is a good choice as a setting if for no other reason that we like to imagine political speeches from the ellipse that do not end in the politician behind the podium.

and attack the u.s. capitol and congress. let's take back the image. we here at msnbc will be taking kamala harris' big prime-time ri speech tomorrow night. we'll be taking it live in its entirety. i'll be joining joy reid for that starting in the 7:00 p.m. eastern hour tomorrow night and live here on msnbc. we really hope you're going to watch that speech with us and then stay afterwards to get reaction and analysis with me and chris hayes and everybody else.ye again, that will all start tomorrow night in the 7:00 p.m.i eastern hour.ur i'm really looking forward to that. l i'm really interested to see what this, sort of, closing argument is going to be from s vice president harris. so, mark it in your calendars. i will see you then.ou tomorrow night. as vice president harris puts together her close argument in the final crucial schedule for the last few crucial days of

the campaign, her campaign has also put out a somewhat controversial ad. i don't think this is going to be their closing ad, but this may be their last ad that is directly about her opponent. watch. >> do you think he's a fascist?h >> he certainly falls into the general definition of a fascist. a far-right, authoritarian, ultra nationalist political ideology movement characterized by a dictatorial leader. the former president is certainly an authoritarian. using the military to go after american citizens is ae very, very bad thing. he admires people who are dictators. he commented more than once, hitler did some good things too. >> if he was left to his own devices, would he be a dictator? if he didn't have people around him? >> i think he'd love to be. >> when somebody's the

president, the authority is total. >> i'm kamala harris and i approve this message. >> one of the closing argument ads from the kamala harris campaign. powerful ad. i mention that it's somewhat controversial ad not because of any of the factual assertions in the ad. it's all true stuff. it's controversial strategically because there are debates in democratic circles right now as to whether or not it's the most effective thing to do in terms h of voters' reaction, whether or not it's effective with voters c to talk about trump's extremism and his unfitness and his dictatorial inclinations. and i have no idea whether it's effective with voters or not.o i it certainly does have the virtue of being a true thing to say about your opponent, which is always a nice thing in any campaign and not always nd something you can bank on.

but, you know, as much as kamala harris and the democrats may want to be running this campaign on the basis of, you know, the good jobs record of the biden-harris administration or restoring reproductive rights or bringing down housing costs or any other thing, as much as they may want this contest to be about those things, it's also just plainly true that she's running against the i want to be a dictator, terminate the constitution, hitler did some te good things guy.ti that is who she's up against. and you can't ignore it.t you can't let it frame the le contest. but you can't ignore it.n' and he really did offer his own big prime-time closing argument with this thing at madison square garden yesterday, which i was very prepared to not compare to the german american boond rally in february 1939 until i heard what they actually said at this rally last night. again, i had no inclination toward this, no intention of doing this whatsoever.ha but i'm just going to play you two very quick clips.

the first one is from trump's rally at madison square garden last night. and the second one is from the infamous pro-nazi rally at madison square garden in february 1939. >> americans sleeping in their s own feces on a bench in central park but the [ bleep ] illegals get whatever they want, don't they? five star hotels, cash, yankee-dodger tickets tomorrow night. >> great floods of tears for a few hundred thousands job taking so-called refugees who incidentally in general have more of this world's good than you or i will ever possess. >> floods of tears for a few hundred thousand job-taking

so-called poor jewish refugees who incidentally in general have more of this world's goods than you or i will ever possess. that was from the 1939 rally. that speaker was gerhardt koonce, who was a german american boond leader who would be indicted for espionage and sedition, leading the crowd to denounce these so-called refugees, these so-called poor people, who get so much better treatment than real americans. the argument doesn't change at all. you know, if you don't want to be compared to those people in history, don't steal their lines. don't say you admire them. you know, if you don't want to be called a fascist, don't convert a normal governing political party into a one-man cult of personality and say all elections are rigged and the country used to be great but now we have to use force and

violence against the enemy and terminate parts of the constitution to get them, right? if you don't want to be compared to the folks who held rallies like that in 1939, don't hold rallies like that. 1 if you don't want to be called a fascist, stop constantly acting out the dictionary definition of fascist. and then we'll all agree we won't use that f-word anymore. what is this election ultimately going to be about in the end? i don't know. maybe it will be about the economy. u.s. economy leads the world, says imf, international monetary fund. quote, the united states is increasingly pulling ahead of the world's advanced economies, with a surge of investment paying off in higher productivity and wages. in what has become something of

a trend, the imf upgraded the outlook for both u.s. and global growth, though more so for the u.s. they made a forecast of u.s. economic growth in january, wt which they then upped in july. they've had to up it again because we're not only doing well, we're doing so much better than anyone expected. u.s. economic growth is, quote, increasingly ahead of all the world's wealthy nations. u.s. economic growth beats everyone else in the group of seven, the g7 major advanced economy. and according to the imf, why is it that the united states economy is doing so well, better than anybody else in the world? well, it's because wages are up for regular people, productivity is up.pe quote, investor money has to flooded the u.s. in recent years, while big legislative packages funded green energy and infrastructure. meanwhile, abundant domestic supplies largely ens lated u.s.e companies from energy shortages and price shocks.oc

economists say that has led to a surge in investment in the u.s., which boosts productivity.es and quote, productivity is the main ingredient for higher, long-term growth and living standards. so, is this election going to be about the economy? right? people always say, oh, it's the economy, stupid. it's always the economy. you think politics is about po something else. it's about the economy. is it going to be about the economy? it turns hangout ahead of the election next week, the united states is beating the pants off the whole rest of the world economically. why is that? that's in part because -- what did they say -- because of, quote, big legislative packages funding green energy and infrastructure. in other words, the u.s. economy is doing great because of the signature legislative achievements of the biden-harris administration.

and what have those signature legislative accomplishments achieved for the american people? they've resulted in what for the american people? quote, rising real wages and rising productivity, which is in what?ct it is quote, the main ingredien, for higher long-term growth and higher living standards. that's "the wall street in journal."wa what the biden-harris administration has done en economically has produced the greatest economy in the world, with better prospects for americans on wages, on long-term growth, on living standards, than any other major economy on earth. here's "the economist." on the u.s. economy right now being, quote, the envy of the world. the envy of the world, the american economy. here's "the new york times" on how what we're experiencing right now in 2024 is the best jobs market, the most healthy job market we have ever had in the history of the united states of america. here's "the washington post" on how this is likely the best economic year of any of our lives, this year, 2024, when

we're having an election, in which we are choosing between the vice president of the administration that brought you the best economy in the world or this guy. quote, trump rally spookers lob racist insults, call puerto rico island of garbage.ts quote, his rhetoric ranks among the most flagrant demagoguery by a major figure of any western nation since world war ii. quote, a closing carnival of grievances, misogyny, and racism. so, sometimes the vote in a national election is about the fundamentals, you know, like is this candidate a good choice on the economy? sometimes it's about a different kind of fundamental. does this candidate say he likes hitler? sometimes it's a more personal thing. when it comes to just liking each of these candidates or not

liking each of these candidates, americans broadly like kamala harris and her running mate, tim walz, and they broadly do not like donald trump and his running mate j.d. vance. the latest a.p. poll on this question, do you like them or don't you, it put kamala harris plus five favorable, tim walz plus five favorable. j.d. vance, minus 16 unfavorable, and donald trump, minus 17 unfavorable. that's its own kind of election fundamental as well. you know? and maybe this election will come down to the fundamentals, right? number one, economic basics. the harris and biden administration with a rip roaring economic record to run on literally the envy of the world. maybe there will be a number two, likability of the candidate. voters like harris roughly 22 points more than they like

donald trump, who they really don't like at all. they just flat out like her and don't like him. she's positive. he's negative. she's positive by a little. he's negative by a lot. another fundamental, number three, quality of the campaign. i mean, just take a little snapshot of the quality of the campaign right now at crunch time one week out. here yesterday was the local press coverage of kamala harris' day in swing state pennsylvanias "philadelphia inquirer," kamala harris goes to church, visits small businesses in yet another visit to philadelphia.ss simultaneously, here was the local press coverage of donald y trump's day in not a swing state, new york. "new york daily news," racist rally, speakers insult puerto ricans, blacks, and jews. and, you know, when it comes to the quality of the campaign, not for nothing, but trump has also been focusing his campaign b message in these final few days to include really important

issues like him saying that he thinks there's life on mars.u his top surrogate and funder, elon musk, telling a trump rally crowd that there are aliens t walking among us right now. trump has also ramped up his on talk about robert f. kennedy jro here at the end of the campaign. he says that rfk jr. is going to get a big job in government.at in trump's terms he's going to be in charge of making america healthy again. if trump is re-elected, robert e f. kennedy jr. is going to get a big job. he's saying this more and more now on the campaign trail. he thinks this is awesome while rfk jr. himself is spending his end of the campaign talking about why we can't have wifi anymore in america because wifi causes something that he calls e leaky brain. if you have wifi, you get leaky brain. also hiv doesn't cause aids. the early '90s called and they'd like their conspiracy theory back. so, you know, maybe it's the , economy.

maybe it's the candidates. maybe it's the campaigns. i don't know how this election h is going to be decided.o neither do you. but there are two additional wildcards that we need to factor in to how this election is goint to resolve.th and we shouldn't have to factor either of these in. but we do. the first is the absolutely, totally telegraphed, easily foretold effort by the republican party to disrupt, subvert, ultimately to try to steal the election if they lose it, to try to flip the result or to cause enough chaos and delay and confusion that they prevent any clear election result from emerging. and as you know, we have covered this in detail now for most of the past four years since their last effort to overthrow an election result caused chaos and intimidation and violence and death and ultimately led to hundreds of people being pe convicted of crimes and sent to prison. they have professionalized their

approach to the matter since then. and i -- there's only a certain percentage, right, in covering this stuff add nauseam. we know to expect it. a we are ready to watch for it. at this point, there is no doubt that it is coming. there's not much to do to prepare for it expect to know that it's coming. get your knees loose. get ready. we're watching for republican ng officials to refuse to certify election results. we're looking for them to at least try to delay certification of local election results in to order to make it seem like there's something wrong with the election in their area. so that can serve as a pretext for some sort of larger effort to gum up the works in that th state. we're watching for republican state legislatures, especially i in swing states like georgia, arizona, where republicans have control of the legislature, r we're watching for state legislators to try to submit votes for trump even if harris

wins the state. trump and house speaker mike johnson started saying this weekend they have a secret plan between them, between trump and the republican controlled house that's going to result in them doing, quote, really well in trump's terms. presumably that's something to do with how the republican controlled congress is planning to handle the counting of the electoral votes if harris wins. that, of course, is dependent on republicans keeping control of the house so mike johnson will still be in charge. but apparently, they have a plan, in case he is. republican state legislators recently refused to comment to politico.com when they were contacted last week. cnn reported late last week thad the house administration committee in congress hired two people who were involved in trump's 2020 fake electors plot.

they've hired them to come on board as staff at that re congressional committee right now to advise them on election matters. house administration committee i is the committee that actually reads the electoral votes and advises members of congress as to what procedures they should be following while doing things like reading and counting the electoral votes. again, they've hired two people from trump's fake elector scheme in 2020 to advise them as dv congressional staff for that process this year. so, yeah, that does not seem good. and we shouldn't have to worry about and watch for things like that in an election. but in the republican party's trump era, we absolutely do. we should also expect that sometimes the goal will just be chaos, so nobody has trust in the result. you know, chaos and upset. that anger and dread you felt when you saw the headlines today and you saw these images today of burning ballots, of ballot drop boxes that were set on fire in portland, oregon, and

vancouver, washington. in vancouver, washington, hundreds of ballots were er destroyed.f in portland, oregon, interestingly, they think only , three ballots were destroyed. that's because they installed a fire suppressant system inside that drop box. only three ballots considered to be damaged in the portland fire bombing of a ballot drop box. they've been able, they say, to contact the three voters whose a ballots were damaged in portland. in vancouver, where they believe it was hundreds of ballots destroyed, they're advising that people who put their ballots in that particular box that burned, people who put their ballots in sometime after 11:00 a.m. on saturday -- that was the last time it was emptied before the fire. people who may have used that ballot box in vancouver, washington, are being asked to contact the election office to get new ballots. they caught a suspect vehicle on surveillance footage, and they're pursuing that lead. the fbi is investigating both of these as well.

we shouldn't have to deal with what everyone is expecting to be -- subvert the election, flip the result of the democratic candidate wins. we shouldn't have to deal with efforts to stop the election, right, to burn ballots, to make us believe there's no real knowable result. we shouldn't have to. but in the trump era, we do. and we also -- and this is the last point. we also shouldn't have to deal with any other country trying to determine who we pick as our next president. we shouldn't have to deal with v any presidential candidates having secret communications with a foreign dictator who is hostile to the united states who is trying to determine who we choose as our next president. that just shouldn't happen. but in the trump era of

republican party politics, this is now familiar. in the 2016 election, we know that the russian government interfered in the election to help trump. they had leaked documents from trump's campaign. they mounted a propaganda campaign trying to mess with us, trying to toward the election toward trump. we also know that in 2016, trump's campaign chairman was, during the campaign, sharing proprietary non-public information from the trump n campaign with a russian intelligence officer, while ce russian intelligence was mounting that operation against us. then four years later, it was the 2020 election, and we know that russia once again interfered on behalf of trump. that time it was trump's personal lawyer working with a sanctioned kremlin agent to try to derail joe biden's campaign against trump. then now four years later, happening again. now in the 2024 election, we've got russia seemingly doing more than they've ever done. they are straight up paying

pro-trump podcasters and media personalities. we've got russia making deep fake videos about kamala harris supposedly hurting someone in a hit and run accident and tim walz supposedly abusing one of his students. both of those videos are os completely fake, but both circulated very widely online. v and both of them are now officially considered by u.s. intelligence agencies to have been created by russia. we've got russian military intelligence paying and directing an american ex-pat to make fake american seeming news websites and to produce conspiracy theory videos that have been promoted widely by pro-trump personalities and media outlets. now we've got the director of national intelligence coming out and saying the recent fake video of ballots cast for trump supposedly being destroyed in bucks county, pennsylvania, that fake video, too, is an operation of the russian government. all designed to help trump and hurt harris and make us not

believe in our own democracy. in 2016, it was trump's campaign chairman talking to russian intelligence while they did their campaign to help trump. 2020 it was trump's lawyer talking to the russians while they did their campaign to help trump. who's the contact person this time for the trump campaign he while russia's doing it again?'s cheaper to cut out the middleman. this time it's trump himself talking to putin, while putin ip mounting this effort to get trump elected, reported in bob woodward's most recent book. talked as many as seven times since trump left office as president. when asked if it was true, trump said, quote, i don't talk about that. remarkable message of discipline from him on this subject and only this subject. what else is he so, you know, tight lipped about?is in addition to trump, it's also reportedly elon musk, trump's top funder and cheerleader, who has reportedly not only been

talking secretly to putin while putin has been mounting this effort to try to get trump elected, he -- musk specifically has also been talking to putin's first deputy chief of staff. and why would elon musk be talking to putin's chief -- deputy chief of staff? why would he be talking to that guy specifically in the russianb government? i don't know but he is the guy in the russian government who is in charge of operations targeting the american public, like, say, for this election. the guy who orchestrated the whole fake news websites that look like american news outlets, the guy who's running that part of the pro-trump russian campaign operation is in frequent communication with elon musk now.mu while that campaign is underway, while elon musk has taken a leading role in the trump campaign. that's who elon musk has been talking to while russia has been doing this stuff. wonder what they talk about whes they talk. when the republican candidate and his top funder are

reportedly in frequent and secret communication with our country's most determined enemy while that enemy is messing with us in our election to help the republican campaign win. how do you play that wildcard in this hand that we've been dealt? that's ahead. stay with us.

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>> that piece of tape of ohio republican sen tit candidate.

mr. merino's campaign has instead decided what they think is a better option, a safer option for them. they can't guarantee he's not going to say stuff like that, so they've done one of the weirdest things i've ever seen in politics anywhere. credit to the publication business insider for reporting this out, but to watch this video they've posted. this is bananas. this is a guy asking republican senate candidate bernie merino a question. you can see that the question is being asked, you can hear that the question's being asked. but then a staffer for bernie merino runs up to the guy asking the question and holds a big black box that looks ike a speaker in front of this guy.

the black box puts out an ultrajamming frequency so noone can record any sound anywhere near it. and it makes the audio get squeaky and muffled so you can't hear what bernie merino says. it sound like dick tracy's science fiction, but they're actually doing it. to watch this. >> hey, mr. merino, will you -- >> mr. merino do you have any other opinion on [ inaudible ]. i'll be there. do you have any other comments you'd like to share before you leave? >> so you can hear things a little bit until the box gets really close to the microphone. these are videos from the ohio

democratic party. the campaign apparently bought an ultrasonic jammic gadget that they're now waving in front of microphones to stop people from being able to record anything that bernie merino says. >> hey, mr. merino, how many of your former employees do you think are going to vote for you? >> la, la, la, can't hear you, not over the sound of of my ultrajamming gadget we bought at a the spy store. appreciate you being here. i know you're in the middle of a campaign. i've never seen anything like this.

i have to ask your reaction to it. >> he's been hiding from ohioans the whole election. he rarely talks to the media. he doesn't seem to want to answer questions from much of anybody. when he does, he gets in trouble. he finds this spy gadget apparently made for the military, so he doesn't really want to answer questions about ohioans voting 57% for abortion rights, about how he stiffed his employees out of their overtime, $400,000 worth, about he sledded documents. it's a hi-tech way to avoid talking to the public. >> you know, your opponent did really, sort of, step in it when he said that women over 50 essentially don't have a right to have an opinion about things like an abortion since they're not making babies anymore at that age. i felt like that comment from

him -- he didn't have the instinct like oh, i hope my wife didn't hear that. but he didn't have enough instinct to stop himself from saying it. do you think feel like the broader issue here is that he's an inexperienced candidate, that his campaign doesn't trust him to not be able to either say things that are more politic or that he ought not to -- ought not -- that he ought to be stopping himself from saying? >> well, he always thinks he knows better. he's one of those kind of candidates. but what you said, that his own staff clearly doesn't trust him to go out and talk to people and answer questions. so, it shows something about this race. he stiffs his employees and then refuses to talk about it or his staff steps between him and the questioner. so, i don't really know what to make of this except that he really does want to hide his views from the public. and his staff really wants to hide his views from the public. when you're that out of step with the public, the only way to win is to spend a whole lot of money. this is, as you know rachel, most expensive -- there's been more money against me in this race we believe than any senate race in history.

it's going to be a very close race because ohio has gotten more conservative, in spite of our 57% abortion rights vote last november. but he's going to continue to hide behind his $200 million ad campaign. and that's why i ask if people could help at sherrodbrown.com. send 20 or $25 to beat this machine of $200 million. >> you're right that this is thought to be the most expensive senate race in history. it's all because of the amount of money that has been spent against you. ohio is broadly expected to select trump in the presidential this year. what's your closing argument to ohioans who are weighing whether or not they want to split their ticket? obviously ohioans who are going to be supporting kamala harris

for the presidency are likely to support you as well. but ohio voter who is might be thinking about voting for trump and might be thinking about voting for you, what's your message to them? >> i appreciate you having me on again. politics to me is not so much left to right. it's whose side are you on. the reason they're spending $200 million is i take on the drug companies and stand up for workers and unions, take on the -- when they committed the disaster in east palestine. and the contrast is clear on abortion rights, on workers, on the dignity of work and voters no matter how liberal or conservative in the end they want to know who's on their side. and i think when they do to vote a week from tomorrow that they make that in their own minds, they understand that i'm on their side on all these issues. >> senator sherrod brown from the great state of ohio. it's always good to see you, sir. thank you so much for your time. i know this next week is going to be hanging by the fingernails, a real nail biter for everybody watching the race and i know for you and your family.

good luck to you, sir. and stay in touch with us over the next week. >> thank you always. >> okay. much more ahead tonight. stay with us. ahead tonight. stay with us

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if you're living through an election that russia is targeting with paid propaganda and deep fake videos about kamala harris and tim walz and supposedly destroyed ballots in pennsylvania, if you, in other words, are an american voter in 2024, where that is what russia

is doing in this election while the republican candidate and his top funder, elon musk, are both reportedly in frequent personal communication with vladimir putin. and in musk's case with the senior russian official who appears to be orchestrating this attack on our election for trump's benefit. well, then it might help to check in with somebody who knows how russia works, who has personal experience with it. victoria newland retired this year after more than three decades of government service, the number three ranking official at the u.s. state department. she also became a top target of putin and russia's intelligence agencies. putin's regime bugged her cell phone, leaked recordings of her calls with other diplomats in an attempt to undermine her relationship and america's relationship with our allies. russian state media has consistently portrayed her as a kind of uber powerful american boogieman.

they've blamed her, for example, for single handedly causing the revolution that ousted ukraine's pro-putin president in 2013. that was 2013. they're still blaming that for her now. victoria newland is an american government expert on russian aggression. she also personally knows what it's like to experience it firsthand. joining us now is victoria newland, career diplomat. madam ambassador, thank you very much for being here. i know tv interviews aren't your favorite thing in the world. >> thank you, rachel. it's great to be back with you and to talk about this issue, as you and i did in 2016, as we did as well in 2020. >> this is the third election in a row in which russia has tried to interfere to try to get trump into the white house. >> yes. >> how do you assess the magnitude and the type of interference they're attempting this year compared to what they have done in the previous two elections?

>> well, as you said earlier, rachel, he's at it again. this time he's not even trying to hide his hand and he has far more sophisticated tools. you know, his a.i. is better, so he can make these fake videos. he has done things like spend $10 million trying to buy american influencers and get them parroting his lines and not even know it's happening. but he's also got a brand-new, very, very powerful tool, which is elon musk and x. you know, in 2020, the social media companies worked hard with the u.s. government to try to do content moderation, to try to catch this stuff as it was happening. but this time we have elon musk talking directly to the kremlin and ensuring that every time the russians put out something like this, it gets 5 million views on x before anybody can catch it. so, it's quite dangerous. although i do think the american electorate has gotten more sophisticated and more savvy

about this stuff. >> if an american citizen is talking to senior officials in the russian government about anything, aren't they supposed to be reporting those contacts to the u.s. government? and if so, is that just a nice thing to do, a patriotic thing to do, or are they required to do that? >> it's not a legal requirement but it obviously causes some suspicion and question about what musk's motives are here, especially because putin doesn't like it when he thinks we're interfering in his election, which we don't do, despite his views about that. but clearly he's interfering in our election and musk is helping him. and musk is also helping trump. so, now you have this triumvirate all on the same team. and putin doesn't think it's important to try to look even with any semblance of even-handedness in this

election. he knows what he wants. he wants donald trump elected. >> i wanted to ask you about something else that was reported today in "the new york times," which is that according to "the times" reporting, one of the ideas that's circulating in trump's campaign is if he's elected they should get rid of fbi background checks for security clearances, that instead the white house alone or the white house maybe with a private company that they appoint for this purpose should decide who gets security clearances without allowing the fbi to review, for example, people's past convictions, people's connections with foreign governments, people's susceptibility to blackmail or other reasons they might be denied a security clearance. that feels like a very risky move in any circumstance, given the circumstance that we're just

discussing here. it seems almost insanely reckless. but i wanted to get your take on it. >> insanely reckless is the right way to put it, rachel. that would mean that there would be no independent check on who anybody around trump was talking to, might be influenced by, might be paid by. and it would put putin, it would put xi jinping, it would put kim jong-un directly into the situation room and into donald trump's brain. and that's very, very dangerous. but equally dangerous, if i may, is what trump is saying about what he would do inside the united states, that he would turn the u.s. police, that he would turn maybe the u.s. military against his enemies, that he would obviously use the courts to go after folks that oppose him. he is already suing members of

the media and that he would deny licenses to media organizations that oppose him. who does this sound like? it sounds like his friend, vladimir putin, and the way putin operates in russia and what putin did to the tiny fledgling democracy that was starting to sprout in russia. so, trump is also taking putin lessons, as autocrats around the world are. >> the idea of an american led by an admirer of putin who puts the united states not as the leader of the free world but rather into effectively a sort of axis with the dictator of russia and the dictator of china and north korea and -- i mean, to join -- for the united states to be aligned with those countries instead of our traditional alliances, i'm not sure people have absorbed the magnitude of what you're just describing there. maybe we will. former under secretary of state for political affairs, career public servant. it is an honor to speak with you, ambassador. thank you so much for being

here. >> thank you, rachel. >> all right. we'll be right back. 'll be righ.

so, we know that a big part of the republican party's plan to make sure donald trump gets another term in the white house, it runs through the court system. with just a week to go before election day, we've already seen state supreme courts in three different really important swing states all come to definitive resounding rulings against republicans on voting challenges.

in all cases, they have been pro-democracy rulings so far. tuesday last week, it was a unanimous, really fast ruling from the georgia state supreme court smacking down that state election board's attempts to impose a bunch of last-minute new rules that experts say would have opened the door to real chaos in georgia on election day. the next day last week, wednesday, it was pennsylvania. that state's supreme court ruled that voters whose mail-in ballots are rejected, that should be allowed to cast a provisional ballot and have that ballot counted. they're going to allow election officials to count mail-in ballots that arrive without a postmark has many as three days after election day. so, yeah, there's going to be a big legal fight right there along side the political fight in the election. so far the league side of the fight is proceeding in an orderly and normal way at least in the state courts. and that shouldn't be something

that counts as news, but in an environment like this, it counts as news. we'll be right back. we'll be right back.

one last thing before we go. so, i made this new documentary about russian interference in the 2020 election and trump's first impeachment. it's called "from russia with lev." you can now watch it streaming. it's available on documentary plus. if you want to, you just scan the qr code right there on your screen. it will take you right to it, which is very cool. also msnbc films has another new documentary out that you may have heard about. it's called "separated: an

un-american tragedy." it details the story of the trump administration's horrific child separation policy. screenings of separated are happening this week in eight different towns and cities. you can them here on the screen. you can scan there to get tickets. you can head to maddowblog.com for information on both of those films. tomorrow night i'll be joining joy reid during the 7:00 eastern hour for coverage of the big speech by vice president harris from the ellipse. the campaign is calling it her closing arguments. i'll be here with joy at 7:00, with chris at 8:00. looking forward to that. then on sunday we're going to start our election special coverage, me and the whole gang, starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern on sunday night. really hope you'll be here for that. that does it for now. "way too early" is up next. >> can we all just take a chill pill and take a joke from time to time? this is