women who supported that party. think about this, jonathan. even though some of the facts of history may have been obscured, the black panther party supported by 70% women, they talked about sickle cell. they talked about food programs for the kids, feeding kids, and now the federal government is doing that. they've talked about so many different things. free clinics. again, organizations supported by women. but look at this today, from shirley chisholm to kamala harris, potentially, she could become the president of the united states, number 47. she is at the top of the list. there are 600 black women on ballots all across the nation. she's there. you have lisa blunt rochester, expected to win her election in delaware for the u.s. senate seat. then you also have angela in

maryland, fighting to make sure she wins. you have other black women all across the nation. >> right. >> this is a big day for black women. >> it certainly is. senior white house correspondent for "the grio," april ryan. thank you for joining us. it is an historic election, and we'll have complete coverage for you all day long on msnbc. thank you so much for starting your election day with us here at "way too early." "morning joe" starts right now. ♪♪ ♪ oh beautiful for hero's crew ♪ ♪ in liberating stripes ♪ it was invisible, as always. they'd begun to vote in the villages of new hampshire at midnight. as they always do, 7 1/2 hours before the candidates rose. his men in new hampshire days before, sending his autographed

picture to each of the 12 registered voters in the village. but from there on, it was unpredictable, invisible. by the time the candidate left his boston hotel at 8:30, several million had already voted across the country. in schools, libraries, churches, stores, post offices. these, too, were invisible. but it was certain that at this hour, the vote was overwhelmingly republican. on election day, america is republican until 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening. it is in the last few hour of the day that working people and their families vote, on their way home from work or after supper. it is then, at evening, that america goes democratic, if it goes democratic at all. all of this is invisible. for it is the essence of the act that, as it happens, it is a mystery in which millions of people each fit one fragment of

a total secret together. none of them knowing the shape of the whole. ♪ above the fruited plains ♪ >> of course, the result is the most awesome transfer of power in the world. yet, as the transfer of this power takes place, there is nothing to be seen, except an occasional line outside a church or school, or a file of people fidgeting in the rain, waiting to enter the booths. no bands play on election day. no troops march. no guns readied. no conspirators gather in secret headquarters. the noise and the blare, the bands and the screaming, the pageantry and the oratory of a long fall campaign fade on election day. all the planning is over. all the effort spent. ♪ i love you america ♪

now. >> the candidates must wait. ♪♪ perfect words to start the show with on this election day. tuesday, november 5th. that was from white's "the making of the president 1960." an estimated 79 million americans have already cast a ballot. today, those who will vote in person will add their voice. polling places in some states are already open at this hour. in a race that most believe is the closest in u.s. election history, it was only fitting that residence in dixville notch, new hampshire, who cast their ballots shortly after midnight, went with an even split. three vote for vice president

kamala harris. three for former president donald trump. along with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire. nbc news and msnbc political analyst, former u.s. senator, claire mccaskill. and pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post," eugene robinson is with us on this momentum election morning. >> and on this momentous election morning, mika, as you said, the race is as close as anyone can remember in modern american history. >> according to the polls. >> if you believe the polls, willie, then we are deadlocked at a tie. if you look at "the new york times" aggregate of polls, it's a tie. the final "new york times"/siena poll, it's a tie. if you look at "the washington post" aggregate of polls, it's a tie. there are a few outside the margin of error. one for harris that has her up four, four and a half from

yesterday. the harris campaign obviously feeling very good this morning, that they have just enough to win this. the trump campaign has been confident all along. not quite as confident as they were before, but certainly those that are supporting them, every bit as confident, as well. something has to give. >> that's right. we talk about how the poll have been not particularly accurate over the last couple of cycles, but when enough poll over enough weeks tell you the same thing, it's fair to say that this is a margin of error race. it really is, when you look at the seven battleground states, they could tip either way. this could be a long night, a long week, where we're still counting the votes, or it could be a landslide in one direction or another, if somebody wins all seven of those states. we are standing on the precipice of something. i do -- watching vice president harris' day of rallies yesterday, and we'll contrast it with donald trump, all the anxiety we hear about, and it's real among voters, about which way this election could go,

clearly has turned into energy and action and purpose for people who have gone out in droves to volunteer for kamala harris. >> right. >> to knock on doors. they had more volunteers than shifts. they had to find other jobs for people to do. >> that's amazing. >> yes, of course there is anxiety. yes, people are worried about which way this could tip. but people have done the right thing, which is to get into the fight and try to make a difference. >> you're starting to hear, as we get near the end, jonathan lemire, some anecdotal evidence that follows up when you hear 900,000 harris volunteers knocking on doors across pennsylvania. i heard last night from someone who was a republican in texas. turned into a never trumper but didn't tell anybody. moved up to pennsylvania. had voted republican his entire life. nine knocks on the door from harris people every three days. when he finally voted to say, okay, i'll vote, his wife had not voted. nine more knocks until the wife

went to vote. he said, that was not the remarkable part. the remarkable part was a lifelong texas republican voter who moved to pennsylvania didn't get one knock on the door from anybody in the trump campaign. >> wow. >> from any republican. now, maybe, maybe all the rules of the past don't apply in this election. with donald trump, he breaks all the rules all the time for politics. >> it works for him. >> but if the ground game is as important as we've been led to believe the ground game is important, even trump people will tell you, it is worth half a point. it's worth three quarters of a point in close races. as willie said, because all these races are so tight, a one or two percentage point margin in all these states means a landslide for either donald trump or kamala harris. >> yeah, each state is so tight, but they all could break one way. we don't know. great contrast in terms of the ground game. the democratic team started under president biden, then vice

president harris, has built it up. it is enormous. they have more volunteers than they know what to do. stories in michigan, wisconsin, door after door. republicans are nowhere to be found. they outsourced their ground game to elon musk, to other groups. there's a difference between a volunteer knocking on a door, a democratic volunteer who believes in the cause, versus someone who is paid to be there and may be phoning it in. that's really important. i'll say, eugene, talking to people last night, there's still confidence from the trump team, though there is less than before the madison square garden rally ten days ago. last night and early this morning, i texted with over a dozen senior democratic officials, from the harris campaign, the white house, the dnc, and some state parties. to a person, all say this race is very close. to a person, they say, look, we have work to do today. to a person, they say, all things seem to be breaking our way. to a person, they all say, we think there's a path for a narrow win. >> they all knock wood after they said that, right?

they crossed their fingers and toes and everything like that. you know, so here's what's so interesting. because we know that the polls are never exactly right. they're a little bit off. it seems likely, that if something is going on under the surface that is not being picked up, maybe reproductive rights is a bigger issue than people think. maybe democracy is a bigger issue than people think. because that was the case two year ago in the midterm. so it's not just happening in one state. it's happening in all the swing states. so if they're all that close, you know, it's a movement of a couple of percent that we're not picking up. it can actually mean a landslide. i think it is more likely that a bunch of the swing states go one way or the other way than, you know, a total mix and half and half, say. >> right. james carville said several week ago, he said, right now, it is

4-3. that's not how it'll be election day. it'll swing six or seven to one side. >> yeah. >> only thing i'd add to what you said, jonathan, in our talks with the harris campaign over the past several week, two weeks ago, they said, it's grim. we have a lot of work to do and don't know if we have time. last week, they said, okay, we're going in the right direction. early last week, they said, we're going to catch him. i will say, over the past two, three days, and i'm just reporting here, not jinxing anybody out there, so nobody scream -- if the red sox, by the way, are up 19-3, jack and i know to say, this isn't over yet. [ laughter ] >> thank you. >> i will say -- >> thank you, jack. >> -- when we talk to several sources high in the harris campaign, for the first time, these veterans of 2016, who were traumatized by the hillary clinton loss, said, "we're going to win." >> they recognize that. >> we are going to win.

>> yeah. >> they say that knowing, we got it wrong in 2016. we're not going to get it wrong this time. we are going to win. >> the one note of caution is, we have seen two previous cycles. donald trump is very good at turning out voters on election day. there is still a sense that could happen. maybe there is the surge of voters who turn out. to this point, though, those low propensity voters they're banking on, mostly young men, they're not seeing signs they've been out there. maybe it'll change today. maybe it won't. >> right. >> right now, as we start this election day, to joe's point, i was hearing the same last night, as well, this is the most confident democrats have felt. they're knocking on wood, not taking anything for granted. it'll be a long day ahead, but they feel good about where they are. i think the biggest issue so many of them said to me is, when this all settles, we'll look at each other and realize it was about dobbs all along. reproductive rights and women's rights is what this election was about. >> first of all, i want to ask claire about that. but we have the candidates making their closing arguments.

even from last night, the contrast could not be more stark. i know we've been saying that for the last few days, but when we show you their final speeches even before today, if there are things scheduled for today, it is just unbelievably different and dark. we also have jd vance trying to spin a pun or spin a tale about the garbage comments that have been made, that started with the msg rally. he ends up calling kamala harris trash. so very different closing arguments between the two sides, claire mccaskill, but the question will be, my belief is that women and men who get it will be the beacon in this election, but will it be enough? >> well, there's two things in the last two weeks. really three. you have the ground game, which we talked about. let me just make sure everybody understands. our side is using seasoned veterans who have worked the ground game cycle after cycle

after cycle, and they have advanced their processes as they've learned what works and what doesn't. the harris campaign has spent multiples on the ground game, more than what has ever been spent before. more than double. in fact, almost triple on the ground game compared to previous cycles. on the other hand, the trump campaign is using elon musk, who thought the brilliant idea was to get data by paying people 100 bucks to sign a piece of paper. i'm not sure that's going to work out for the guy who wants to always be the smartest one in the room. the second thing is how you close. what you're talking about, mika, is a big deal. the only voters out there who haven't made up their mind are what we call feel voters. they get a sense at the end of the campaign. they're not digging down into climate change policy. they're not looking at what is going to really happen with a

tariff. it's how a candidate makes them feel. i'll tell you, if you watch donald trump over the last week, how he made you feel was, is this real? can this guy actually be a serious candidate for president? versus kamala harris, who absolutely oozed presidential poise, dignity, joy, hope, all those things. >> right. >> and unity. there is a pace for everybody at her table. i feel really good. >> let's see it. >> one last time at the contrast. vice president kamala harris, donald trump making their final pitch to voters in several campaign rallies yesterday. the moods, the messaging, starkly different, to put it mildly. harris offering optimism, hope. donald trump closing out his final campaign hours literally at 2:13 a.m. this morning, going after his opponents and painting a bleak assessment of the future. >> we are optimistic and excited about what we will do together, and we here know, it is time for

a new generation of leadership in america. [ applause ] >> for the past nine years, we have been fighting against the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth. >> instead of stewing over an enemy's list, i will spend every day working on my to-do list. on your behalf! >> a crazy, horrible human being, nancy pelosi, who cheats like hell. she's a crooked person. she's a bad person. evil. she's an evil, sick, crazy -- oh no. it starts with a b, but i won't say it. >> in two days, we are going to take out the trash in washington, d.c., and the trash's name is kamala harris. >> now, tomorrow, women all across america, of every age, both parties, are going to send a loud and clear message to

donald trump. whether he likes it or not! [ applause ] >> i am not going to be a leader who thinks that people who disagree with me should be put in jail. >> our stupid generals, our terrible generals, you know, the guys up top, like milley, like kelly, real losers. kelly was dumb as a rook. >> my pledge to you, to always put country above party and self. >> adam shifty schiff. [ crowd booing ] i call him pencil neck. he's got the smallest neck i've ever seen. he's got about a 4, and he's got the biggest head. i don't know how the neck can hold the head. he is an unattractive guy, both inside and out. >> this is about a future with freedom and opportunity and dignity for all americans. >> i will prevent world war iii from happening. i know all the players, and it

is a very good chance it will, indeed, happen. the level of enthusiasm is five times greater than their level. they have no level of enthusiasm. they don't believe in her. >> and momentum is on our side. momentum is on our side. can you feel it? we have momentum, right? [ applause ] >> i mean, we're certainly at the two or three yard line, and the only way we can blow it is if you blow it. i've given you the ball. you have to go and vote. >> make no mistake, we will win. >> nothing particularly new there, mika, from donald trump, same old stuff. >> no. >> same old insults. same contrast we've been showing on this show for what, i don't know, two years, four years since he jumped back in and decided he was going to run again. another thing to look at there was the enthusiasm. the crowd at kamala harris' rallies were large and enthuse i

can't seeist -- enthusiastic. donald trump in smaller houses, people shuffling out at hour two of the speech. these are things anecdotally, that give you a feel on this election day. >> a feel for who he is. about to use the b-word for kamala harris, kind of playing with that. or for nancy pelosi. also, you know, in the past couple of day, it's really hard not to forget the vulgar gesture that he made. i just don't see women going in and voting for that. i see women voting for women across america now who have struggled and died at the hands of donald trump's abortion ban, because of the lack of access to health care, the health care he denied them. i see them voting for their daughters, voting for their sisters. >> right. >> and men, as well, who really get it. i don't see them voting for this man. i don't know. we'll see what happens. >> you add on top of that, last night, claire, the guy that wrote "hillbilly elegy."

the guy who said trump was america's hitler. the guy who said christians could never vote for trump. the guy who put himself out there as conservative but different, that is the guy who, last night, called kamala harris trash. and if you could -- over the last several weeks, if you could name about ten things that the republican ticket could do to drive women voters away, to drive hispanics away, drive older voters away, they've checked every one of those boxes. >> it's nuts. i mean, if you look at it, they have -- the strength of kamala harris is women voters, right? so what do they do the last two weeks of the campaign? they spend most of their time offending women voters. keep in mind who they have to get to the polls to win.

they have to get young men, low propensity voters. >> much luck. >> by the way, they have to get young men. kamala harris has to get women my age. i don't know who you're betting on, but -- >> who is more reliable and responsible and follows through of those two? >> when i was running, i was told, don't waste your time on college campuses. get your you-know-what to nursing homes. there was a reason for that. because of reliability of older voters. reliability of women in this election, when every day, they say something that women go, no, no. you're a jerk. i'm not voting for you, you're a jerk. >> for sure. we already know. joining us from a polling station in philadelphia, nbc news chief white house correspondent peter alexander, who is covering the harris campaign. and from west palm beach, florida, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard president trump

camp. peter, what are you hearing from the harris team this morning? >> reporter: good morning to you on this election day. we're finally seeing folks with in-person game day line, arriving here early. polls open across the state of pennsylvania at 7:00 this morning. i'll tell you, i've had a series of conversations with harris folk over the course of the last 24 hours. much like we've heard from kamala harris herself, they are feeling particularly good. i was struck by a conversation i had with a harris ally who formerly served for hillary clinton in 2016. in the waning days leading up to the election, they felt they were losing altitude after james comey's announcement, among other things. right now, it feels very different. they feel they're still rising. frankly, this person said, if the election was in another week, they feel they'd do even better. but they feel, as harris said herself, particularly good right now. you got a sense of that last night, as she was there on the rocky steps in front of the art library here in philadelphia. harris herself saying it was a tribute to someone who starts as the undering to and climbs up to

victory. tens of thousands of people in attendance. they got there early with paraphernalia, all their gear, with the sense they were witnessing history. for some, moms who had daughters on their shoulders, history that had been delayed. what was striking, harris hasn't really leaned into the historic nature of this campaign over the course of the last many week. she hasn't talked about the potential of being the first female american president. but last night, some of her top surrogates, oprah winfrey among them, did, saying, yes, she can. the crowd joined her in repeating. will.i.am sang a new riff, yes, she can. much like yes, he can, like he delivered in the 2008 campaign for barack obama there. another harris ally telling me, going into today, they'd rather be in her heels than in his shoes. really, there is a sense of confidence they're projecting right now. a lot is because of what they've already seen on the ground. 90,000 volunteers, as you know,

knocking on more than 3 million doors across the battleground states. harris herself joining that effort just yesterday in reading, pennsylvania, doing a little surprise door knocking, as well. you were talking about the madison square garden rally, as they feel the latino vote is leaving trump, coming to harris now. she drove an hour out of her way, allentown to reading, with alexandria ocasio-cortez, to go to a puerto rican restaurant, hoping to hammer home that point on a state that has a huge block of puerto rican voters, many of whom say they're planning to support harris this go-around. >> vice president harris will watch the results come in from howard university in washington today, her alma mater. peter alexander, busy day ahead in philadelphia. thanks so much. let's turn now to vaughn hillyard. he is, of course, covering donald trump. vaughn, good morning. >> reporter: hey, good morning, willie. so it begins here in west palm beach, florida.

donald trump has returned after his final rally last night in grand rapids, michigan. this is where he will, alongside the former first lady, melania trump, be voting in a matter of hours in palm beach, before making his way back to mar-a-lago, where i'm told he will be holding down with campaign adviors and other allies. roger stone one of those, for example, telling me he'll be at mar-a-lago this evening. before making their way, potentially, to the west palm beach convention center, where the gathered press and other supporters, expecting thousands of them, will convene for election night festivities. we could see donald trump tonight. but this is a moment here for this campaign where a reckoning has played out over the course of the last week. donald trump, in the fashion we have become accustomed to, became his free-wielding self, in the most vulnerable ways. suggesting at a campaign rally this weekend he'd put herschel walker in charge of the u.s. defense shield system.

he's said he'll put robert f. kennedy jr. in charge of health care in the united states, even overseeing vaccines. he's openly suggested, as he did last night, he is 95% confident he'll win this election. he's said that he would win california if there were real vote counters. this is a moment for this campaign, where i was talking with a trump campaign battleground source, who told me last week, there was higher confidence where they found themselves positioning wise, especially with the early voting coming in. they said they saw lower propensity voters, voters that haven't voted in the last few presidential elections, turning out in greater share than they had previously. yet, what they watched was their candidate come out uncensored, begin to make unquestionable decisions in terms of the rhetoric he used, denigrating harris' low iq, calling nancy pelosi a crazy, sick person, going on the attack against his former generals, milley, mattis,

and john kelly. the battleground source was telling me, they were already in a deficit when it came to the ground operation you were talking to. telling me specifically that this campaign this go-around in the key battleground states had half the resources that they did in 2020. instead of knocking on every door in the neighborhood, they were having to choose one or two doors to knock on, and they were at a disadvantage. if they were to win tonight, it'd be because of the maga grassroots support that donald trump has built over the last nine years. but that is putting a lot on donald trump and the movement and the supporters, especially those that didn't even show up in 2016 or 2020, guys. >> nbc's vaughn hillyard with donald trump in west palm beach, florida. vaughn, thanks so much. you know, it is important to remember in 2020, the turnout operation that they'd put together, they put together over four years while donald trump was president. brad parcells went out and found

about 9 million voters who hadn't voted in previous elections. that made the race much closer. they don't have that this year. again, you know, knocking on one door in a neighborhood instead of the harris people, who are knocking repeatedly, day after day after day after day. again, maybe there will be some magic, maga magic that rises from the pumpkin patch post halloween, and maybe it puts him over the top. i mean, again, you look at the polls. the polls all say this is an extraordinarily close race. all i can tell you is what i've heard my entire life, what claire has heard her entire life in campaigning. what the trump campaign has told me themselves. that is, when the race is tied, turnout operations are worth half a point to a full point. if that is the case, and these races are actually this close --

again, let's remember, the polls were really wrong in '22. they were really wrong in '20. they were terribly wrong in '16. again, i can't say it enough, fox news and so many other people thought in 2012 that barack obama was going to be routed. if it is, the polls all say it is tied. if it is tied, we're up late tonight. if, instead, there's a two or three-point shift in either direction, which is what every pollster says, margin of error, you know, that could mean the landslide for one side or the other. >> yeah. john, for the harris campaign, it's a ground game which has been built for months and months and months. first for joe biden. interesting thing is, as you touched on earlier, was the overconfidence of the trump campaign, perhaps leading to their lack of ground game. when they were running against joe biden, they were talking about winning new jersey and virginia. how high can we run up the score? all of a sudden, joe biden steps aside.

vice president harris steps in. enthusiasm goes up among democrats. trump campaign says, uh-oh, we thought we'd win in a run away. now, we have a fight. >> they went into the convention in july, in milwaukee, off the first assassination attempt, believing they'd win in a rout. then president biden a few days later stepped down from the top of the ticket. it is worth dwelling on the fact that harris has done this in 107 days. it's the entire duration of her campaign. you know, she obviously entered the race with a lot of altitude, had the lead, had a commanding performance on her convention, then her first debate. but we saw things even out again. the trump team, which was rattled a little while there, really felt good for most of october. these last two weeks have changed. the change is we're seeing the vote totals come in, most important, of course. the feeling around the race changed. as someone in the trump orbit put it to me yesterday, the hubris of the madison square garden event, where he wanted the victory rally event in the

city that ignored him, belittled him, he wanted to show it to them and have a media spectacle. well, he got one, but for all the wrong reasons from the donald trump campaign's perspective. the line about puerto rico broke through. harris people told me last night, they've tried so many messagings in the last months. they had success in dobbs, but the moment, the madison square garden broke through and changed things. >> november surprise. october surprise. ahead on "morning joe" this election day, we'll get live reports from battlegrounds across the country as in-person voting gets under way. plus, presidential historian jon meacham joins us with what he says is his biggest regret about donald trump. and a warning of what could happen if the former president returns to the white house. we'll also bring in, of course, steve kornacki from the big board with a look at what he's watching for this morning. >> did you see how mad he was

last night? >> yeah. >> he always comes in with whiskey bottles. >> no. >> usually, you're fine with him carrying the whiskey bottle. last night, he is throwing it against the wall. >> [ laughter ] >> yeah. >> there's a poll out of new hampshire he doesn't understand. harris up by 25 points. he's not getting it. kicking in the glass doors, throwing the whiskey bottles. willie, i'm looking for a fish. where is kornacki? we'll see. we also have harris-walz campaign chair jen o'malley dillon. she's going to be our guest, as well. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back in 90 seconds. >> went there on election day. >> you have to.

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with a gentle mist and innovative power-jet. spray goodbye to congestion. it's comeback season! tonight, i ask you one last time, are you rady to make your voices heard? do we believe in freedom? do we believe in opportunity? do we believe in the promise of america? and are we ready to fight for it? >> you're going to say, kamala,

you're horrible at your job. you don't know what you're doing. you're a low iq individual. we want smart people, cunning people. we're dealing with the smartest people in the world. we don't want you negotiating nuclear deals because you done know what the word nuclear means. kamala, you're fired! get the hell out of here. >> from the man who got crushed in his one debate with kamala harris and was too scared to do another one. literally, down to the final hours, insulting women across the board. joining us now on this election day, rogers chair and the american presidency at vanderbilt university, historian jon meacham. and author and nbc news presidential historian, michael beschloss. good to have you both. jon, you have a guest essay in "the new york times" opinion section this morning entitled, "i'm a presidential historian. this is my biggest regret about trump." what is that? >> it is a big list, so i had to

focus on one. >> okay. >> i thought for a long time, and my friend, michael, was right long before i was, which is often true with beschloss. it's one of the annoying things about him. >> yeah. >> i thought trump was a difference of degree but not of kind. i thought this was, if huey long had become president, if george wallace had become president, and he was a recognizable phenomena within the american story, an embodiment, yes, of our worst impulses, but the fullest manifestation of things we had seen and dealt with. what he proved to me in the post election period in 2020 was that he was a unique threat, strike the verb tense. he is a unique threat to the constitutional order. because a lot of american figures who had a lot more reason to attack election results, starting with andrew

jackson in 1824 and moving through nixon in '60, humphrey in '68, gore in 2000, senator clinton in 2016, they all had a lot of oxygen if they wanted to do something terrible. but no one did. ultimately, they respected the rule of law. the former president does not. >> no. >> that makes him the unique threat. >> absolutely unique. he has proven -- this isn't just chatter on an election morning. he has shown us, if we believe -- we live in an age of enlightenment. we are supposed to obey reason over passion. that was the point of madisonian democracy. he has shown us what he is. if not for mike pence, it is hard to know where we would have been the last four years. if not for president biden, it is hard to know where we would have been the last four years. and so let's just not do this. >> but what happens, though, jon, as a historian, tell us, then we'll get to michael, what

happens if donald trump loses tonight? let's say he loses convincingly. there's no evidence that he will do that, not at all. >> we don't know what is going to happen. >> but let's say he does. even in that best-case scenario for the harris people and what you're talking about here, we still have an electorate 70 million plus that will be voting for a man who said he was going to assassinate for treason the chairman of the joint chiefs because he didn't support him on january 6th. who said in recent days he was going to execute liz cheney with a firing squad, nine guns pointed and shooting at her face. a man who said he was going to shut down cbs because he didn't like how they edited an interview. a man who said he'd be a dictator from day one. a man who said he'd terminate the constitution. a man who said he was going to use the army, and he was going to use the national guard on his political opponents. i could -- i literally could go

on all day. yet you talk to trump voters and they go, he didn't say that. you go, here's the quote. they go, he didn't mean that. there's something far, far more long-lasting than just donald trump the candidate. there is a russian embrace of disinformation. a radical devaluing of truth over the last nine to ten years. and a complete lack of civics. what checks and balances even means. what judicial review even means. what the rule of law even means. how do we as a nation, even post trump, how do we reach those americans who apparently didn't go to civics class, apparently

didn't learn the basics of this constitution, and have just been overwhelmed with disinformation over the past nine years? >> we are on trial. donald trump is not the only person on the ballot. we are. the american citizenry is on the ballot. all the lies that come to mind, right? all the american patriotic conversation. a republic if you can keep it. washington said in the farewell address, a republic cannot endure in the absence of religious and moral principle. it is not just about the letter of the law. it is about the spirit of the law. and enough of us, and this is precedented, enough of us have to decide that we're willing to lose a round in order to keep a larger experiment going. >> yeah. >> the good news there is for a quarter of a millennium, we've

been willing to do that. it doesn't mean we will do that going forward, but it means we have the evidence of the ages on our side. my view is that history should not be comforting in this moment, right? this is not dorky zoloft, but it can be inspiring. >> by the way, can i say, i listen to all your pods, your podcasts. >> yeah, yeah. >> and the reviews underneath do say four stars, dorky zoloft. i'm all in. >> yeah. >> i'm also hungry. >> i'm hoping for pharmaceutical sponsorships, so hoping that works. but it can be inspiring. 55 years ago, a man from south carolina will appreciate this. a man from alabama -- well, georgia will appreciate this. who would not have wanted to be on the pettis bridge with john

lewis and hosea williams? there were people on the pettis bridge going down into those troopers. if everybody who now says they would have been on the top of the bridge, would have been, guess what? they wouldn't have had to be on the top of the bridge. so we have seen this country change. we've seen it. we can see it again. that's an inspiring thing. it should not be comforting pause this is really, really hard. we've only been a multiracial democracy since 1965. when everybody goes to vote today, for those who go into vote, think about that. that the first time somebody went in and voted in a multiracial democracy was 1968. this is a young, fragile experiment, and we should treat it that way. >> we should. >> willie, in the spirit of jon meacham, when people are confused, walking around, sort of in an ambien daze around

americans, how does -- do i get the pharmaceutical deal? >> i should have stayed in bed. >> no, it was very good. [ laughter ] >> michael beschloss -- >> let's see if he is going for a pharmaceutical deal like meacham. >> give him a chance. here's your moment. >> right. i'll try hard. >> there you go. michael, you and jon, other great historians often talk about hinge days in history. we could go over them all in the last 250 years in this country. this does feel in many ways like a hinge day, which is to say, we're going down one of two very different paths. by perhaps tomorrow morning. >> yes. if historians in the future are allowed to write books -- and, by the way, that question is open this morning -- and if people are allowed to go on television and say what they think in the future -- which, again, that question is open

this morning -- in the future, historians are going to look back on this day and say, this is the day that america made a choice between freedom and democracy on one side, and authoritarianism and dictatorship on the other. >> michael, can i restate something for you? >> sure, please. >> it's not that historians won't be able to write those books. it may be that the billionaires and corporations that own the printing houses will refuse to print the books. >> absolutely. >> we've seen that with the l.a. times, with "the washington post." we've even seen that with other countries. liberal democracies who so fear donald trump, that they are already preparing for the worst. we see billionaires on wall street who, six months ago, expressed contempt for donald trump. people that walked away from him after january 6th saying that he

was bad for american democracy, who are now preemptively kowtowing to someone they fear will be an authoritarian leader. this is the reality we're living in. who would have believed three weeks ago that "the washington post," who rewrote the rules of journalistic history with woodward and bernstein, by keeping politicians accountable, who ever would have believed a few weeks ago that "the washington post" would have written an opinion endorsing kamala harris, and their billionaire owner would scuttle it a few day before the election because he was so fearful that a vengeful donald trump would go after his business? not just "the post," but amazon, his a.i. business. who would have believed that? but now, that's the world we live in. >> yes. >> it is.

that's what happens when strong men come to power. that happened in italy in the 1920s and 1930s. germany in the 1930s. certainly has happened in hungary. viktor orban, of course, is one of donald trump's most otorious heros. he said, we should follow that model, and so it may be. this is what happens when america begins to go toward dictatorship. i think all of us, you know, talking right now, we would have all said, i'll speak for all of us, and if i'm wrong, correct me. if we had discussed this 20 years ago and had said, one of the two major party nominees is promising, just as joe was saying, suspend the constitution, pit the justice department, defense department against political enemies, and run this country out of the white house, telling businesses what to do, small businesses, labor unions, it's all done by one leader in the white house giving orders, we would have

said that person could not get 50% of the vote. as we speak this morning, the polls that you all are talking about say that a presidential nominee, you have to give donald trump credit for this. he's been straightforward. he said, if you elect me, you'll get violence, dictatorship for at least a day. that's a campaign promise. what i can't understand is half the country seems to think that's mine. >> jon meacham, final thoughts. >> we're on trial. everything that everybody here -- you served in the noblest body in the legislative world. >> oh, please. >> oh. >> the second. >> i love you, jon meacham. lay it on thicker. come on, let's go. >> no, not the lower house. the people's house. >> it's on. it's on. >> if the -- >> the house of lords?

what'd he say? >> if the republic ever dies, it'll die in the united states senate. >> because they're all old and tired, but go ahead. >> oh, my god. >> here's what may have happened. the floor of the united states senate, when it confirmed republican justice it is outside the vernacular of ordinary protocols, gave us a supreme court, that gave us a decision that will most likely turn this election. my final thought is, we -- people bled. people died. people suffered for the right to vote. and without the vote, without realizing what's at stake, and it is not marginal tax rates, and it is not electric vehicles, as important as all that is. this is about, are we going to have the ability to live lives of purpose and prosperity under the rule of law? or are we not, as michael says?

>> all right. >> well, we had beschloss and meacham. we didn't get to tilton. >> that's tomorrow. >> wait, wait, let's hope that's not tomorrow. >> yeah, let's hope. >> we don't want to talk about that. >> presidential historians jon meacham and michael beschloss, thank you, both, very much for being on this morning. >> thank you, guys. coming up, we'll dig into how the outcome of the presidential election could impact u.s. foreign policy. britain's ambassador to the united states, karen pierce, will weigh in on that, as well as richard haass and ed luce of "the financial times." "morning joe" will be right back.

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- whoa. (driver gasps) (car tires screech) (pedestrian gasps) (both panting) (gentle breeze) - [announcer] eyes forward. don't drive distracted. our message to kamala harris is simple. the citizens of this country, they're not garbage for thinking

you're doing a bad job. the citizens of this country are not racist for thinking you ought to close down the damn southern border. citizens of this country are not garbage for wanting to be able to afford groceries and a nice place to live. but in two ddays, we are going o take out the trash in washington, d.c., and the trash's name is kamala harris. >> no, no, no. >> come on, man. >> usually, they leave themselves some wiggle room to say, i wasn't talking about kamala harris. he paused and said, "trash is kamala harris." that's the closing argument at the last event from the guy who wants to be vice president of the united states. >> set aside all your feelings about what they believe in and all of that. one of the things that is most important for a president and vice president is judgment. what is your judgement on what will work for any problem you're facing? jd vance is facing a problem, that the women of america do not trust these two guys. that's the problem they're facing. >> right. >> if they didn't have that

problem, they'd be ahead right now. the judgment that went into the decision those words should speak volumes to anybody who hasn't voted yet. this guy's judgment is so flawed. he goes from calling there guy, trump, america's hitler to calling kamala harris trash. something is wrong there, really radically wrong. >> it speaks for itself. >> if you watch the campaign, he said, the campaign told me to keep it within the lines, we're leading, but i'll tell you what i really think about kamala harris. that was the preamble to what he said there. >> good work. >> again, it's what we've always said about the trump campaign. it's always a game of subtraction and not addition. again, i will never understand it. there is a campaign they could have run where they'd be ahead

easily. instead, the race is tied. democrats are feeling very good right now. i don't understand why. there's been no reaching out. it's like, let's offend as many women as possible. >> yeah. >> let's drive down with our most hard core base on, you know, qanon, 4chan, guys that hate women. >> insult for trump. >> if they win, if they win, i just thinking of abraham lincoln's quote. without public support, public opinion, nothing is possible. >> nothing possible. >> are they running the country at a 46% presidency? no, it doesn't work. >> no, it doesn't work that way. and so, you know, trump has been that way for three cycles now. jd vance, what is wrong with this guy? >> yeah. >> what is wrong with this guy? he is supposed to be smart. he wrote a book.

>> he said -- >> it is the most idiotic -- >> he said trump was america's hitler. he said christians shouldn't vote for donald trump. he said he could never support donald trump because of what he says about immigrants and about the others. >> exactly, exactly. but i've seen ambition in politics, but this is something else. >> self-sabotage. >> eating cats and dogs in springfield, in his state, which is a lie to his constituents. >> republican governor tells him it is a lie. >> republican mayor tells him it's a lie. he doesn't bother to go to springfield to see for himself. this guy is just awful. >> to the comments of kamala harris being trash, i refer to nicolle wallace who said, that was the worst political move i've ever seen, and i worked for sarah palin.

claire mccaskill, gene robinso, thank you. >> go chiefs. >> mahomes is hurt, comes back. >> what about washington? daniels was incredible. >> all he does is win, win, win, no matter what. still ahead on "morning joe," democratic congressman jim clyburn of south carolina will join us to discuss the significance of this election and what is at stake if donald trump is re-elected. plus, we'll go live to several key battleground states where the races appear to be neck and neck. our own nbc reporters will break down what to expect. "morning joe" will be right back on this election day. for the last few weeks, my team has been telling me, we're doing good, doing good. just go out there, make sure people know what a disaster kamala harris has been. make sure people know how great

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we are optimistic and excited about what he will do together, and we here know, it

is time for a new generation of leadership in america. [ applause ] >> for the past nine years, we have been fighting against the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth. >> instead of stewing over an enemy's list, i'll work on my to-do list on your behalf. >> a crazy, horrible human being, nancy pelosi, who cheats like hell. she's a crooked person. she's a bad person. evil, she's an evil, sick, crazy -- oh, no. it starts with a b, but i won't say it. >> in two days, we are going to take out the trash in washington, d.c., and the trash's name is kamala harris. >> now, tomorrow, women all across america, of every age, both parties, are going to send a loud and clear message to

donald trump. whether he likes it or not. >> i am not going to be a leader who thinks that people who disagree with me should be put in jail. >> our stupid generals, terrible generals, you know, the guys up top, like milley, like kelly, real losers. kelly was dumb as a rock. >> my pledge to you, to always put country above party and self. >> adam shifty schiff. i call him pencil neck. he's got the smallest neck i've ever seen. he's got about a 4, and he's got the biggest head. i don't know how the neck can hold the head. he's an unattractive guy, both inside and out. >> this is about a future with freedom and opportunity and dignity for all meshes. >> i will prevent world war iii from happening. i know all the players. there's a very good chance it'll

indeed happen. the level of enthusiasm is five times greater than their level. they have no level of enthusiasm. they don't believe in her. >> and momentum is on our side. momentum is on our side. can you feel it? we have momentum, right? >> i mean, we're certainly at the two or three yard line, and the only way to blow it is if you blow it. i've given you the ball. i mean, you have to go and vote. >> make no mistake, we will win. >> at the top of the hour, yesterday's closing messages from the harris and trump campaigns. it is tuesday, november 5th, election day. joining the conversation, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. ceo of the messina group, jim messina. he served as white house deputy chief of staff to president obama, and he ran his re-election campaign. contributor to the conservative

website, "the bulwark," tim miller. he was previously communications director for jeb bush. and spokesman for the republican national committee. and presidential historian doris kearns goodwin is with us. as well as the editor of "the new republic," michael tomasky. good group, joe. so trump and jd vance's closing argument can be summed up thusly. adam schiff has a thin neck. he wants a firing squad to execute liz cheney. >> yup. >> kamala harris is trash. and if he loses the election -- >> the b-word. >> nancy pelosi is the b-word. and if he loses the election, it's all his voters' fault. that was his voes ingclosing ar. what are you looking at tonight? >> usually, you want to close with voters' hopes and dreams.

americans are inherently hopers and dreamers. they want to know where you're going to take them for the next four years. you have one moment to make that pitch. when tim and i were going after each other in 2012, two normal campaigns, romney and obama, making normal arguments. i don't think you'd ever in your life close a campaign like this. instead, you have kamala harris. they both said, joe, one thing that is incredibly important, enthusiasm, momentum. enthusiasm and momentum matter in the final days because it is who -- >> who has it right now? >> oh, she does. look at the polls, democrats are ten points more enthusiastic. that's normally determinative on who wins the campaign. you have to vote. you have to get your friends to vote. that's the number i look at. looking at the iowa poll this weekend, i don't think she'll win iowa, but i think it was women and enthusiasm, saying, we are moving. we are angry. mika and i have been talking about this the last six months. women are angry in the election, and they're voting early in

historic numbers. it's why we were hanging out earlier. you said, how are you feeling? i said, i put my faith in women voters. i think tonight, they'll deliver a very clear message, not to screw with them. >> tim, just from your seat, where is this race? as people head to the polls, it's 7:00 on the ecoast, people are watching the rallies, saying, he's not building the coalition. he doesn't have that gear. he is who he is. the campaign tried to change him. he got in the people who allow him to be himself now at his side. this is who he is. there is no other gear for donald trump. >> he doesn't have the gear himself. in 2016, he learned a lesson. the playbook was there for him the last ten days. it was after "access hollywood," after comey. he was still trump, advancing noxious views, some views that are not traditional republican views, but he was on message-ish. it was draining the swamp. it was the border. he stuck with that.

>> tim, most importantly, and he even said it after the election, others have said it for years following the election, that the last ten days of the election, he showed discipline. he got quiet, got out of the way, and let it be a referendum on hillary clinton. this time, he's done the opposite. >> it worked. >> it worked then. just the opposite this time. the last ten days, execute liz cheney. the last ten days, insulting everybody. kamala harris is crash. go down the list. it was the madison square garden event. it causes a spike on google. what's happened these last ten days? >> he can't control himself right now. this is a person that donald trump is the same person, but it's been a decade. whatever it is, the confidence of having won the last time, thinking he is invincible,

having advisors around, getting rid of the advisors that told him, "no, donald, you shouldn't do that." it's a combination of things. say what you want about kellyanne conway and them, but in 2016, she did have that with him. she was able to say to him on the plane, you have to focus on the forgotten man, focus on this. we had the playbook in 2016. he had a quasi team around him that could do it. it wasn't the a-team, but it was a quasi group of people. those folks are all gone. it is just trump. now, it's jacking up turnout in the red counties. you have seen him not even trying to reach nikki haley voters. he didn't call nikki haley since june, so he is not reaching swing voters. it's jacking up the red counties. >> to jim's point, women are reliable. unlike a lot of men. but it's important to look at the reason they are angry.

not just say they're angry because he makes vulgar gestures on stage, though it'd be extremely disappointing to anybody. you wouldn't hire that person. you wouldn't want that person -- you'd certainly say something if someone did that in your presence. you would not support that. but he is a defamer of women. he's been found liable for that. he's a sexual abuser of women, accused of rape multiple times. let's just say very blatantly, the misogyny runs deep with donald trump. we know how he feels about women. but what he's done for women, what he has done to women with the fall of roe, whether we like it or not, he's caused us great suffering. he has hurt women in what he's done in his first term. i think that actually, mike barnicle, makes men mad.

because they're watching what is happening to women across the country, in states where there are strict abortion bans, taking them to hospitals, caring for them at times when they're bleeding out, and they're not able to do anything. they're confronting ers who can't do anything to help their women. any real man would be upset about that. >> your explanation is on point about women and their feelings and everything like that. you can extend it. women, you think, think about their families more than men do when it comes to voting. they think about their children. the impact adults have on their children. the impact donald trump has on our culture, women, children, men, has been impactful and almost always negative. the other day, i'm with two new york city police detectives,

both married. went for trump in '16. went for trump in '20. they're not going for him this time? why? i can't say it on tv because there are several expletives involved. because he is mentally ill. he is crazy. they have watched him. one went to the garden for that rally and came back saying, you know, this guy is nuts. he cannot be in charge of anything. and that is reflected in their home lives. in their wives, who also went for trump and not going for trump now. so it is anecdotal. i haven't looked at a poll in three weeks. i've had the world series to watch. "man on fire" with denzel, watching that instead of the polls. i feel rather good about this. i feel rather optimistic about this. i think momentum is with her, and the component with her is based strictly on donald trump's rhetoric, his behavior, his

physical appearances over the last ten days. >> i will say, and mika brought up the women and what they've seen over the past several years. you know, donald trump was found -- and i want to get the wording right -- donald trump was found liable. he was found liable of sexual abuse. and the judge said, judge kaplan said, she failed to prove he was raped in the code doesn't mean trump didn't rape her. he added, indeed, as the evidence recounted in trial makes clear, the jury found mr. trump did, in fact, did exactly that. i bring that up because you had said that, and i just -- every time we say that, i want to make sure we're not speaking in

shorthand. the jury found one thing. the judge said, in fact, it was rape. so, to be clear, the trump campaign has been concerned about how that was used. i would not be reading that this morning but for the fact that is what the judge said. we just want to be crystal clear on that. >> judge said it met the definition there. >> right. >> also, to mika's point, a group of ob-gyns in texas put out an open letter. 111 ob-gyns pleading with state elected officials to change their six-week abortion law for the very reason you say, mika. they say it's preventing them from providing life-saving care to women who need it. there needs to be changes to the laws. presumably, that'd apply to donald trump, as well. >> the hard thing to confront right now, and i think a lot of women are talking about this, and it sickens us to our core, is some of the men who are taking part in preventative

capitulation, who are billionaires or who run major organizations. like, we know rupert murdoch, we know jeff bezos would never hire donald trump. jeff bezos wouldn't hire him to deliver packages. >> no. >> i don't think he actually can because of his conviction. even more so, you can't trust him. he'd throw them in the garbage or something. he wouldn't do his work. he wouldn't care. he'd be rude to women. he'd be a sexual harassment nightmare. >> doris, again, andrew ross sorkin asked, would you ever hire this guy? never answered the question. doris, you know, when i first ran, i looked to those who were, you know, the best example, the best people to emulate. you go back to fdr, and it was about optimism.

reagan, we are a city shining brightly on the hill to see. you could go through all of the great politicians. you could look ahtyba rack obama talking about hope and change. that was after i ran. but one after another after another, it got back to hope. every time it was too angry on the campaign trail, saying, the street will flow with the blood of the unbelievers, whatever i'd say -- i never said that -- i'd instead say, what is a good reagan quote? what is a james madison quote? what is a good lincoln quote? because you know, that's how you win campaigns. you end the message with, i truly do believe, and i do, that america's greatest days lie ahead. that's what voters want to hear, what they want to believe about this great republic.

donald trump has been giving them the opposite. how does it play in contrast to other presidential campaigns? >> i agree with you so much, joe. think about happy days are here again, was the song that fdr played in the height of the depression. i mean, it seems crazy, but on the other hand, he was saying, there's a confidence. the melodies make you feel cheerful. that's my temperament. i'll get you think this. think about what happened with john kennedy. we have high hopes, high apple sky in the high hopes. it was a new generation that was going to give hope to the country. think about the civil rights revolution. i do believe we shall overcome. what takes people over the bridge? faith that together they can make a different america. then you have ronald reagan, as you say, mourning in america. we have george bush, a new hope for the future. you have hope and change for obama. you have look forward, not looking back for kamala harris. that's what's won elections.

history inspires us with that. the only thing that makes sense for what's happening now with the other campaign, talking about a sick society, talking about vengeance, talking about how we're going to get back, is that whatever donald trump went through with those convictions, those trials that he is still going to face, it's so angered him that he can't even rise up to the belief in the country again. the belief in himself, the confidence in himself. jd vance is following through by calling her trash. i can't believe those negative feelings about our country is in decline is going to inspire people. i can't wait to go to the polls to talk about a sick society? there's a lot of anger and grievance out there. there's no way that that's expanded the base of what is already there. that's why we have to hope that history tells us. now, he's defied history a lot of times before, but this time, the closing statements will make a difference. >> jim messina and tim, i'll put this to both of you. you were on opposite sides of the 2012 campaign.

for people watching at home, what is today's like? what is election day like from inside the campaign if you're sitting with the candidate, waiting for the returns to come in? specifically, which states will you be watching early on to get a gauge of where this is headed? >> fair to say i hate election day more than any day ever. three times happen. you wait. you hear unfounded rumors. >> right. >> and you attempt to start drinking. that is all you really do. >> throwing up, smoking a cigarette. sorry, mom. >> exactly right. i'm looking at wisconsin. that's the battleground where the best, historic political operations in america on both sides. scott walker machine on one side. the amazing machine the democrats built in wisconsin. i was talking to the best political operative in america yesterday on the ground who said, jim, there is no other side of the ground game. the walker machine is gone. they've outsourced it to elon musk.

we're getting door after door that have never seen a republican. that is the battleground state of wisconsin. i'm feeling good. the other thing, mika, to make you feel better, early vote, women 55.5% of the early vote, that shows what you're talking about. they understand the moment. those are the numbers i'm looking at. tim was right, there are good numbers for the republicans on rule stuff, but women are the story of the last two elections. women carried democrats in 2022, carrying them in the ballot initiatives, and it looks like they'll do it again. >> michael, i want to have you get into your piece. you say donald trump is losing it. i won't even complete what you say he is losing. this, of course, remains a family program, until i accidentally say the f-word. michael, tell us, why is donald trump losing it, and what impact is that going to have on the

election tonight? >> well, you've gone through it pretty well this morning, all the things he's done in the last ten days that have been like wtf moments, if i may put it that way. joe, if he does lose this race, i think journalists and future historians will look back at the madison square garden rally as a key, key moment. when we first learned about that rally, i quote, 1939, this is what he is trying to emulate. a lot of other people wrote that. it would have been so easy, think, for his campaign to prove us all wrong and say, no, no, no, that's not what we have in mind at all. we're going to have women speakers. we'll have moderate speakers. we're going to have black speakers, latino speakers. and that would have sent a different message to the country. but it was a crazy hate fest. i look forward to reading a really detailed account some day of how that came down and how they put together that list of

speakers. if he loses, it was a really pivotal moment. in contrast, what has kamala harris spent the last ten days doing? more than ten days, actually. we're not going back, and it is time to turn the page. this is what doris was saying. this is hopeful, optimistic, forward looking, and it is a contrast. and you have to think the still on the fence voters who are going on vibes, who looks more confident, who looks a little more presidential, you have to think they notice this. >> where will you be looking at on the map, tim? >> georgia right away. georgia is not critical to the vice president's map to victory, but you can learn a lot by seeing, you know, what the numbers look like in the suburbs of atlanta, what black turnout will be like in atlanta.

that can alter what we'll see in philly later. they're not that different these days. georgia is going to count a lot quicker this time. they've made real reforms. there was criticisms in some of the reforms as far as access to voting is concerned, but they have good reforms as far as streamlining the count. brad raffensperger, gabe sterling, the 2020 heros are still there. they're hoping for results like florida, 9:00/10:00. if kamala harris won georgia, everyone in the harris camp can take a deep breath because the map gets easier. if it is very close and she's doing well in the suburban counties and the counties she'll need to do well in in the upper midwest, it'll also be a good sign. obviously, if donald trump is winning by more than expected in georgia, that'll be a wake-up call early on. >> doris, we've spoken about the two closing arguments. one on the downside, one of the upside. one sort of the cloudy, rainy day, and the other a sunshine

day. how long does it take for an incoming president of the united states to restore a sense of optimism about the future of america? it's been run down continually by one of the candidates. how long does it take, and what does a president have to do taking office to restore confidence in the future of this country? >> it is a great question. in this day and age, it'll take a longer time than it took for fdr. if only it could be what happened with fdr. he gave the inaugural address. one out of four were out of work, the depression, people were starving, wandering the streets. the financial system collapsed. he said, only a foolish optimist would deny the brutalness of the moment. then he said, this is not your fault, to the people. they thought because they lost

their job, it was humiliating. they'd wake up with suits, then go home from a job they pretended they had. they said, it is leadership's fault, and i intend to be the leader. he promised he'd get people back to work. by the end of the speech, the mood of the country has changed. they wrote, we have a leader. the government still lives. hundreds of thousands of letters went into the white house. one man wrote, my dog ran away. my wife is mad at me. i've lost my job. my roof fell off. but everything is all right, you are there. that's the mystery of leadership. that's not likely to happen now, because there is a sense the country believes not much about what the other side is saying, talking about a sick society, a side with grievances. i don't think the level of grievances mr. trump has, which has come out passionately, are what is being felt by the country at large. yes, it is a problem with inflation. yes, there is a problem with housing. but the country is not a sick country. the country is doing better than any other country in the world right now. that's going to play itself out over time. that optimism is a natural human

part of america, the optimism. it's got to be restored, but it'll take us a while. >> doris, i'd love to ask you then, if we do see some signs of autocracy setting in, the preventative capitulation of companies that own "the washington post" and other billionaires going on cnbc and not admitting they'd never hire donald trump, not stepping up, men really who have let the women of america down at their moment where they could make a difference. but do you think the abortion issue could be an historic turning point for women stepping up in perhaps ways they never have before. >> it's not simply abortion. it's how women are being treated by the other campaign, as if they don't have control over their own health, their own decisions, that they should go back into the kitchen. the grandparents should be taking care of the kids rather than worrying about where their

lives are going forward. i think women are going to step up. the interesting thing is eleanor roosevelt in '57 said, can you be president? she said, wake up, i'm 73 years old. but she said, eventually, no question, a woman is going to be president. she said, more women are going to get into government. more women are going to be elected. more women will be appointed. the more we think of women as people, people who deserve to be president just as any man or woman does. that's the campaign that kamala has run, not as a woman but as somebody who deserves to be president because she's a person and she happens to be a woman. that's what a lot of women are feeling right now. it's women's time. it's way, way past the time. i wish eleanor roosevelt was still alive so she can see what's going to happen. >> yeah. >> michael, let's finish with you, and i ask you the same question. post dobbs, how much will abortion, how much will women's issues play in who wins tonight? >> i think quite a lot. i've always suspected a lot, joe. i've always suspected the polls are somewhat undercounting

harris voters, undercounting women voters, probably black women voters, in particular. we'll find out. i think the selzer iowa poll offers some substance that the hunch may have merit to it because she polled differently than the other pollsters. she picked something up the other pollsters didn't pick up. look, you know, i think women are angry. we saw this in 2022. we saw it in kansas. we saw it in kentucky. and many men are angry, too. when i read stories of women being turned away from care, doctors telling them, "sorry, i can't treat you," it is infuriating to not just women but a lot of people. finally, i'd add, you know, harris has comported herself with dignity. she doesn't have to say, i'm running to be the first woman president. she just has to be a candidate who carries herself with dignity and grace and in a presidential way. i think she's done it. >>messina, tim

miller, doris kearns goodwin, thank you for being on this morning. doris is author of the number one bestseller, "an unfinished love story," a personal history of the 1960s. thank you, all. still ahead on "morning joe," a conversation about what's at stake for foreign policy in today's election. we'll get expert analysis. that's next on "morning joe." ♪ everybody wants to rule the world ♪

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whoever will be elected, we have to dance with him or her, the tango, whoever will be elected. because that's my job. for all allies, make sure whoever will be president, he or she feels welcome in all the nato meetings and, of course, any new defense, secretary of defense, secretary of state, et cetera. and i will say, i had one long conversation now with kamala harris. the ukraine peace conference in june. we had, for half an hour, dinner together. she's really marvelous and very experienced, also much more than many people would think on the international issues. she has -- she was sitting in on all these meetings in the white

house. the biden administration had to navigate the international arena. >> we finished the three hour press conference of the new secretary general. >> new secretary general of nato, mark rutte, offering his assessment of kamala harris to students in estonia last month. >> i thought it was good. sometimes you want to know, what are they saying to students in estonia? that's what, on election day -- >> i wanted to know. >> so glad we got that. >> on texas, crucial. >> that's how michigan goes. >> he praised harris and said he could work with both presidential candidates. >> but he didn't really mean it. >> as nato and the rest of the democratic world prepares for today's election results. joining us now, the british ambassador to the united state. also with us, the president

emeritus on the council of foreign relations, richard haass. he is the author of "home and away," available on substack. and national editor at "the financial times," ed luce is with us this morning. >> all right. madam ambassador, let's start with you. obviously, britain stands ready to work with whomever is elected president today or tomorrow, next week, next month, whenever that may be. what are your thoughts, though, about some of the challenges facing this special relationship? >> well, as you say, joe, we're very ready to work with whoever the american people choose. it's not our decision. we're neutral on that. but we will work with the next president of the united states as we have worked for a very long time with successful administrations. i think the challenges, in some ways, write themselves, as in

w-r-i-t-e. we have the ukraine conflict. we have israel/gaza. we have a more strident iran. we have a more assertive china. the only way we're going to manage all of these against the backdrop of a very unpredictable first quarter century of the 21st century is by working together. absolutely agree with mark rutte. we'll work on all these challenges. >> given the challenges, and they are great, the possibility of two regional wars breaking out, iran, of course, being more assertive than ever, i'd guess the british government and you would think it is more important than ever that the united states and britain be shoulder to shoulder in facing the challenges, again, regardless of who is elected president? >> completely agree. shared endeavors in war and peace, that's how we think of ourselves in the united kingdom.

standing next to the united states, ally number one. we're one of a few of america's allies who have global reach, and we want to burden share with america. i'll just say a word if i may, joe, about american leadership. in my experience in the world, there's no substitute for american leadership. other countries want it. even if some of them want it so they can oppose it. other countries look to america to set the pace in dealing with many of these global challenges. and we see our role as shoulder to the wind and helping. >> richard haass, we talk about ukraine. we talk about nato. two very different points of view on nato from donald trump and kamala harris. it goes without saying. we talk about taiwan. we can talk about gaza and israel. there's so many flashpoints around the world. as people head out to the polls that are open, and i see you've already visited one in new york early this morning, can you just lay out the stakes and how different the world might look depending on who wins today?

>> the stakes are enormous. yeah, this is one of those hinge moments in history, willie. 3.5 decades after the cold war. three quarters of a century after world war ii. it's been a good run of history. we've avoided great power conflict. people live longer, live wealthier, live freer. not bad as history goes. it didn't just happen. it wasn't just a coincidence. it happened in no small part because the united states built institutions and maintained them, forged alliances, made them work. so history doesn't just work out. in this case, the united states played a large role. are we willing and able to do it going forward? the ambassador showed why she is a good ambassador, but there really is a difference between the two candidates. donald trump does not see allies as a great advantage or central to american foreign policy. he sees them as economic competitors. kamala harris is more in the mainstream of american foreign policy. seeing as lies at the great

force multiplier, the comparative advantage. we need security first in order to create an environment where we can pursue economic goals. there is a fundamental difference between an america first candidate and alliance first candidate. >> by the way, going to force multiplier, in pure numbers, it is always idiotic when you have a president who is trying to sort of be an america first, cut us off from european allies, from our british allies. the united states has a gdp of $27 trillion. the eu, approximately $27 trillion. add britain to that mix. you're looking at $60 trillion to china's $17 trillion and russia's $1.4 trillion. it's a force multiplier. together, you have the britain, the united states, and the eu, you have a force that simply overwhelms the rest of the world in every day. >> ed luce, richard haass spoke to the outcome of a kamala

harris win in terms of our allies and what they need from us, what we need from them. now, the closing messages between these two candidates are so stark. so different. all the polls are showing this to be a tight race. what would the consequences of a trump win be across the world? >> that's a very good question. trump says a lot of things, most of which i think he means. he is consistent on his desire for a trade war. i think a global trade war is pretty much a given. he also likes the art of the deal, or at least he likes to think he can make deals. if he won, you couldn't rule out xi jinping calling him and saying, "donald, i'll pledge to buy $4 trillion, $5 trillion, name your number, of american goods if you don't put the tariffs on." you can't root out something like that happens. i think, generally, if i

couldn't -- if you appoint kash patel head of the cia, if he appoints the true believers in trumpian, those who want to end the post-war world that america made, then we'll see the darkest side of trump. if he does the central casting picks like with rex tillerson when he got elected in 2016, 2017, and jim mattis to pentagon, then there's going to be a lot less concern and panic in allied capitals across the atlanta and in places like australia. a lot of this depends on which trump shows up. i think even the better trump is going to be very destabilizing. we've just seen in the last 24 hours ukrainian troops engaging with north korean troops.

fighting troops from the other side of eurasia. whether you call it an axis of chaos, alliance of the aggrieved, whatever you call it, there's north korean troops, chinese diplomatic cover in putin's war. if you ask moscow, pyongyang, beijing, and tehran who they'd prefer, well, it would probably be donald trump. >> well, from your following, jonathan lemire, your reporting on donald trump, most notably in helsinki, it seems very obvious that taiwan would be for sale to xi. seems very obvious that ukraine would be for sale to putin. it seem very obvious that south korea would be abandoned once again in favor of north korea. i mean, donald trump.

talk about your years of reporting, where you saw that donald trump, time and again, sided with vladimir putin over his own intel community, and sided for autocrats over democratically elected leaders in the west. >> it was one of the few consistencies of his presidency. he was skeptical of alliances. even before helhelsinki, he sid with putin. he nearly pulled the united states out of the alliance with nato. he has at times deemed the eu, the united states enemy. he feels there should be trade wars and we should not be supporting them in other ways. i think if he were to win, obviously, he's been very clear that he would abandon ukraine here. he may pull out of nato. you know, taiwan, i think china would take it as a green light. he's also -- there's been reporting in the last few weeks that he suggested to prime minister netanyahu, if he were to win, he'd give the green light to do whatever he needed, to whatever he saw fit in the middle east. the consequences would be that

big, mike. also, it's not just a trump, that the world is watching what happens if trump wins burks but they're watching the campaign. they're watching the rhetoric from trump. they saw what happened after 2020 when he questioned the results, and our democracy was at stake. i was told by foreign diplomats that really unnerved them. i think it'll contribute, especially if something like that happens again, to this idea that the united states cannot be counted upon. >> what's interesting about this discussion, listening to richard, the ambassador, and ed luce, is that you jonathan, you in your comments, raised the issue of america's role in the world that was not discussed really at length during the course of a presidential election. especially when it was mentioned by one of the candidates, mr. trump. he ran this country down continually. it's the end of the road for america unless he gets back in,

yada-yada-yada. ambassador, i would like to ask you, what do you tell people who ask you when you are home in great britain or when you're talking to people who are members of the european union, nato, what do you tell them when they ask you the following question, if they do ask you this, "why is this race between donald trump and kamala harris so close?" >> that's a really interesting question. we've seen it in our british politics. over the exit from the eu. it'll have to go to historians, but i'll hazard a go. i think there is something unsettled, more than the majority of our citizens are used to. people, i suspect, are not quite sure what they think of various

things. therefore, you have this 50/50 politics, which swings around the middle. in my experience, fundamentally, most citizens like mainstream policies. they like foreign policy that helps them go about their business day-to-day. we have a big job to do to explain how foreign policy does that. one example i might use, freedom of navigation, america has been helping in the gulf, around the world. freedom of navigation means ships get through. ships getting through brings your amazon parcels for christmas and other festivities. so i think we do have to explain why foreign policy matters to ordinary people. why a more stable and secure world is going to be a more prosperous world. we can't take that argument for granted in the way we could maybe 30 years ago.

>> madam ambassador, obviously, you can't get in the middle of this campaign, so let me say this on the side before i ask you the final question. it is interesting that keir starmer, when he was swept into power in labor, talked about bringing together people from all sides. talked about humble leadership. the sort of message that kamala harris is also ending her campaign on. compromise, consensus, bringing both sides together. i'm curious, as we've been so engullfed over here on the june debate, joe biden dropping out of the race, assassination attempt, all of the things that have been going, we haven't paid as close of attention to what's going on with our closest ally. tell americans a little bit about keir starmer, the labor government, how things are

moving forward there and in britain. >> thank you, joe. yes, we have a new government. the new prime minister, keir starmer, the foreign secretary, came here for the nato summit. defense is very important to them. you may know he was the first black britt brit to go to unive in the united states. the prime minister is used to the international stage. liberal democratic values. as you say, they have a big majority in our parliament, which enables them to get their programs through. the prime minister met president trump when he was here in september at the u.n. he wasn't able, sadly, to meet vice president harry, which was purely a scheduling item. but as he said, we'll look

forward to working with whoever the american people put in the white house. >> u.n. ambassador to the united states, thank you so much, as always. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much. richard, we've been talking about what donald trump's foreign policy might look like this time. let's take a closer look at vice president harris. do you see daylight between where the biden administration is now and where her foreign policy might be if she wins tonight? >> it's always hard to read, because vice president's job is not to carry out an independent foreign policy. but from everything she's said and done, appliance first, her meetings in munich, meetings in asia, so my guess is a tough approach to china. support for taiwan. you know, support for ukraine. i think the area, willie, where there might be the biggest daylight between her and the current president is the middle east. is the middle east. obviously, things like gaza. you know, i mean, the israeli pressing ahead militarily without a political component of the policy.

40 and 45 people in gaza have lost their lives, more than half not part of hamas. my sense is that's where you would see the biggest difference. not so much israel and iran. i think there is a real understand that israel faces an existential threat of something big. i think the discretionary parts of israeli policy towards the west bank, towards gaza, towards lebanon -- >> that's an area trump said you have to free netanyahu, blow him away. >> and the problem, people say, quote, unquote, that's pro-israel. what if you think what israel is not necessarily in the best interest of israel? >> i'm just saying for american voters in michigan who are going, oh, wow, the biden administration's been trying to slow down netanyahu's bombing in gaza. so i'm voting for trump. no, donald trump said i'm all in, do whatever you want to do. >> look what happened last night. moving the embassy. the trump peace plan, talked

about massive annexation. i think the people in michigan ought to look at the differences. >> yeah. >> we are talking, obviously, about global issues here. you being from great britain, part of europe, you can still feel world war ii in parts of europe when you are there and you can still sense it even in great britain from people who remember world war ii. we in the united states of america clearly you know this, we are not as globally inclined as europeans are. my question to you is, if donald trump wins this election, what's the reaction in capitals in europe, great britain as well, to the pending trump administration? given the war in ukraine, given what's happening in the middle east, given the problems with gaza and israel, what happens? >> that's a great question, mike. you know, i think there are different parts of europe.

remember, europe is not just people who believe in nato, but there are parts of europe that are not real believers in nato that have their own far-right and far-left challenges to the status quo. you have viktor orban's hung garre. probably the most secure leader, giorgia meloni in italy, near fascist adjacent at least italian leader, these forces will be boosted by a trump victory. it's not just europe looking ahead across the atlanta and thinking, what's america done? this is about a different kind of america. it would have an impact on domestic politics across europe. it would empower and embolden the far right, a trump victory. i think they don't know harris as well as they suspect they know donald trump, but i think when they look at harris, people watch the debate in september.

they know that people like putin and netanyahu will see harris as a woman and a non-white woman and, therefore, as a pushover, somebody who could be challenged or tested very early. that temptation putin has already been hinting at. i think she showed in that debate, she is a prosecutor. she likes taking on bullies. and that debate was, you know, an example, i think, how she would respond to tests, early tests from people like putin or iran, for that matter. >> no question. ed luce and richard haass, thank you for being on this morning. and coming up right here on "morning joe," live reporting from battleground georgia where more than half of the state's registered voters had already cast a ballot by the time polls opened this morning. plus, we will get an update from one historically red leaning

county in wisconsin that democrats are hoping will deliver them america's diaryland. also ahead, the so-called oracle of nevada politics, ralston joins us with his predetectives for today's presidential election. "morning joe" will be right back. joe" will be right back singlecare is easier to use than my insurance. there are no membership fees or premiums,

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still ahead, we will get live reports from five battleground states where polls are open right now this morning. plus, nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki will be with us over at the big board. and later, the chair of the harris walz campaign jenot mali dillon. we are back in two minutes with much more "morning joe" on this election day. day t be painful, embarassing, difficult to talk about,

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welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, november 5th, election day. >> which, of course, means -- >> our third hour begins now. >> we can only talk about one thing. >> what's that? >> a show i am watching now on apple tv. disclaimer. have you seen it? >> i heard the ravens. i have not watched it yet. >> disclaimer? unbelievable. it's extraordinarily well written book. there is a plot twist about halfway through. it's really something. you guys need to see it. >> i have a disclaimer for you. >> speaking of plot twists, we are running this election. and about halfway through the election, joe biden steps down. that's a plot twist. >> that's a plot twist. >> and here to guide us through, sort of our cliffsnotes, not that i ever used that in high

school because i did, actually ever class, what is actually going to happen the next 24 hours. they come in the form of nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki. how is that? was that good? >> perfect. >> he is at the big board now. >> steve, tell us, you can talk about the election or you can talk about disclaimer. >> i am like willie. i haven't seen it yet. i stick with the election. good morning to you. happy election someday. in fact, we have already got results just to explain why you see three votes to three votes nationally. the little town of dixville, new hampshire, the grand resort hotel is there. they vote at midnight traditionally. it's 3-3. fitting. so it's still tied as we will await the more full results later. in terms of what is to be expected tonight, again we have sort of seven core battleground states. you know them by now, i think. one of the questions raised by

that iowa poll over the weekend is could there be some kind of a surprise outside of those core battleground states. barring that, the action is going to start tonight first poll close in the country 6:00. 7:00 eastern georgia. the first core battleground state, polls closed. this is going to be different i think than the past. the laws changed in georgia and if it goes to plan, we are going to get a to ton of votes in georgia very fast when 7:00 comes around. i am talking about 80% of the entire vote in the first hour. 7 to 8:00 p.m. it's a new state law. all of the early vote, all of the mail vote has to be reported out in that first hour, and we have seen 4 million people in georgia vote early. so that could be 8 #%. when the results start colk in, where do i look? one county, to put this in perspective, the 2020 results from georgia on the screen. remember how close the state

was? i call this right here the blue blob. the blue counties in the atlanta metro area are big, they are growing very fast, they are tie veersfying and becoming more democratic. more than 40% of the vote in the state comes out of these counties. biden got nearly 70% four years ago. the question one of the tells for me tonight is going to be is the blue blob getting bigger because there is a right here, fayette co-getting close for democrats. i want to show you what it looks like there. this is a high income, suburban county, 120,000 people. part of that atlanta metro area. if you went back to 2012, mitt romney won by almost 2-1 over barack obama. came down to just under 20 when trump came along. down to single digits in 2020. this typifies what we talk about in the suburbs with high educational attainment. around the country moving away from trump's republican party.

if kamala harris and the democrats are getting what they want out of georgia tonight, having a good night, this is going to turn blue tonight. if it doesn't turn blue, that is an achievement for the trump campaign that puts them in better position in terms of the atlanta metro i can't remember and heading off other losses there. a lot of other stuff we could get into. north carolina closes at 7:30. again we expect a pretty fast count for most of the vote in north carolina. if it's super, super close in the end, you know, may be a cliffhanger. if somebody's got a one, two-point edge we may see that in the north carolina results. one place just mentioned to kind of key in on here, this is nash county. there aren't many counties in the country like this. this is outside of the raleigh area. look at this. it went for -- 2012 obama the winner, went for trump the winner, and then it went for biden. it's what they sort of call -- it's the ultimate sort of swing

county in north carolina. so we'll look there. that could be a bellwether. zooming out here, 8:00 the polls close in pennsylvania. pennsylvania has a ton of vote by mail. basically, the pattern in pennsylvania is going to be we will get a ton of, almost all of that vote by mail pretty early and then the folks who went out and voted today we will start getting those votes released. expect in pennsylvania the early outfits numbers 8:00 will be the best for democrats for the night. the story is going to be as the same day vote is counted up is trump able to chip at and erase entirely whatever deficit from the mile in votes. 8:00 p.m. just about all of michigan. so the official poll closing time there is nine. between eight and nine i think we will get a lot of michigan because it changed how they do -- total overhaul of how they do the elections in michigan. they have early in-person voting

for the first time. millions have taken advantage of that. preprocessing of those pilots, you don't have to white to election night to start opening them, verifying signatures, all of that slowdown and administrative work can be done ahead of time. wisconsin 9:00 p.m. eastern we will get a close there and the thing to look at in wisconsin, if this is super tight and we are waiting on wisconsin having looked at all of these other states, there is one twist in wisconsin we might as well flag right now. the city of milwaukee. there aren't many in wisconsin that do this. it takes all of its early vote, and we will talk in 100,000 ballots, maybe more, takes all of it to a separate location, counts it at the very end of the night. this is usually 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. >> come on! >> what? >> who thinks of this. steve, who would think of this? you look at what florida does. i mean, florida counts the early votes early. and we know by 8:30, 9:00

usually who is going to win that state, except for 2000. why in the world would -- i understand the republican legislature's pushed back in wisconsin, they pushed back in michigan, they pushed back in pennsylvania. the other two states they sort of took care of that by some things they did. why in the world would wisconsin wait to take the early votes from milwaukee to another place and count them when all that does is feed into donald trump's lie? >> well, to be clear, that's not a decision by the state of wisconsin. that's a municipal decision in milwaukee. >> why would they do that? >> there has been pressure not to and they have resisted. i couldn't give you the best argument for why that is. what i think they are trying to do is make clear the separation between we're reporting -- this is all of the early vote versus the same day vote to make the separation clear for whatever reason. i could tell you in wisconsin, and this is not just coming from republicans, there have been folks saying change that.

it doesn't look good to have it overnight. the rules in wisconsin, it's a decentralized state. hundreds and hundreds of municipalities and they have the right if they want to do -- any one of those could do that. there is about three dozen in the state that do it. the biggest is milwaukee and it has been a moment -- >> so, steve, let me ask you this question then. we know to look at fayette county in georgia as a larger indicator. we know to look at nash county in north carolina. talk about -- we are going to get early votes out of pennsylvania. michigan pretty quickly. wisconsin, give us the county or counties that you are going to be looking at there. so even while we are waiting for the milwaukee vote, we will get the idea of if, let's say, trump is wildly overperforming in one county or harris is wildly over performing in one county, we will know which way the race is

going? >> starting in wisconsin here, you hear about the wild counties. these are the three big suburban counties outside of milwaukee. for me the word wisconsin is going to be bow wow. what i'm talking about here is the bow counties. this is brown county, this is where green bay is, right? this is -- excuse me. here we go. brown county. this is where appleton is. we are going along the fox river is. oshkosh. you see they are all red. the story is similar. you had, look, romney won, brown county, won narrowly in 2012. trump flipped it big time, got into double digits in 2016 then trump gave back not all of it, but some of it, a margin of 11, comes down to a margin of seven. in a state as close as wisconsin, this is part of how trump lost the state in the counties that ar red, a big jump

in 2016, he gave back some, not all of it, in '20. i want to know is trump getting back to the level he had in 2016. that's what his campaign there. the wow counties, we are talking about big waukesha is the biggest of them. big suburban county. unlike other parts of the country, the suburbs outside milwaukee have remained more republican than some of these other suburbs that i am showing you. you see still a 20 something point margin for donald trump but again down. won by 27 in 2016. just over 20. is that coming down further? the one really i really want to look at is the o in the wow, ozaki county. this has the highest level of educational attainment, the population that has a four-year college degree, the highest of any county in wisconsin except for dane county where the university of wisconsin is. biden lost, but 55-43 was the best showing for a democracy in ozaki county since lyndon

johnson in 1964. this has been a stalwart republican county but allergic to donald trump. this is one to key in on tonight because it has so many of those demographic ingredients that democrats are counting on. how far -- could harris get this down much farther or has trump stabilized this? the trump campaign wants to stabilize it, the harris campaign wants to bring it down. and one final one -- i mean, the game has changed so much for democrats in wisconsin the last two decades. again, donald trump's arrival on the scene has a lot to do with it. the western part of the state on the mississippi river, you used to see blue, blue, blue counties. counties with large blue collar white populations. some have swung 30, 40 points in donald trump's direction since 2016, become core republican counties. the democratic support has become much more concentrated

geographically, into geographically small population dense areas and democrats are leaning on dane key. look at this. a 50 something point win, university of wisconsin again, 50 something point win for biden. look at that margin. 181,000 votes. they drive this up. four straight elections, i think every election this century the democrats drove up the margin higher and higher in dane. what it's doing and what it did in 2020 by about this much, offset those massive trump gains, one by one in the much smaller rural counties. those add up. if the democrats continue, this is a thing to look at, 181. does that streak continue, do democrats take their margin higher in dane county, take it significantly higher? again if trump's making gains in places like the battle counties i showed you or the small rural counties, democrats more and more will depend on this. >> all right. steve kornacki, wow, thank you very much. lay of the land for us.

>> we have our teacher. >> we do. thank you, kornacki. we will be watching you. joining the conversation we have former msnbc host and contributor on washington monthly, chris matthew. senior columnist martin, and the unmaking of america author and fantasyland, how america went haywire, kurt anderson. also a contributing editor to the atlantic. jonathan lemire and mike barnicle with us as well. great group. >> chris, give us your report from the philly suburbs. >> polls are open in pennsylvania. >> i am downtown near your favorite hote the rittenhouse. i have to tell you that the campaign run by harris has ended the way they wanted to, the way mika has been talking, you have been talking on the abortion

rights issue, right out there, running -- the interview i did with trump over and over again here, over and over again in this battleground state, and clearly they are asking people to defend their rights. they are asking people, use your vote to defend your democracy. and thereby, defend your rights. i have always said the connection between your rights and your voting are very close. if you vote, you can protect your rights. if you don't vote, you are not there. you are not working. you are not defending yourself. so i think a lot of people in bucks county, montgomery county especially, delaware and chester will be out there voting for harris. i think that's probably going to make the made for her. a close state. a lot of red hot counties, 50 some counties out there, carville kaurls alabama. it's very stark, the difference. they are voting on nationality,

their belief in the flag and defending against immigrants and asylum seeker and others are voting on women's rights. it's a very basic election now. >> jonathan martin you have been out on the campaign trail. what's your sense of things as we sit here now finally on election day? >> well, i think most democrats believe that their best path is still to get to 70 via the blue wall. but i will say in the last couple of days you hear some chatter about the posibility that georgia may come online for democrats, and it may have to because wisconsin is looking nip and tuck for democrats. keep in mind how close the wisconsin margins were four years ago. there is hope, as there is every four years, dane county can get bigger and offset the rural decline in wisconsin. maybe that's the case tonight.

there are concerns that wisconsin is going to be a challenge at least will take a tay to count all the votes there. but with hope that georgia could come through with a strong election day performance, especially on my african american voters in the metro atlanta area. on the republican side, still a belief trump will carry pennsylvania and that effectively trump will block her path early in the evening by carrying georgia, north carolina, and pennsylvania, which won't leave her anywhere else to go. but i can tell you from being in pennsylvania all last week, harrisburg state college, you know, allentown, philadelphia, and scranton, the democratic ground game there is extraordinary. and the presence of basically liberal activist from across the northeast knocking on doors in pennsylvania over the weekend i think threatens to overwhelm the republican ground game in that state. the sheer presence of ground soldiers in pennsylvania on the

democratic side is unlike anything i have ever seen. >> yeah, certainly the democrats have a significant advantage in the ground game. growing optimism in the last 96 hours or so. they might have more paths than just those three blue wall states. we also have a contrast in closing arguments. the voip last night, pittsburgh, philadelphia, other to stops, hope and the future, really didn't mention donald trump's name. donald trump lengthy rallies, multiple stops, concluding in michigan, dark rhetoric, dangerous, did not feel like a campaign that felt great in his last moments. >> and continually undisciplined. i mean, rambling, bringing up odd pieces of information and grievances that didn't belong. this 14 is a guy -- and this is making his final pitch, right? i remember 2016 when he surprised everyone by winning, he was -- appeared to be a disciplined candidate. he was making a great pitch to

the bernie sanders unhappiness about the economy and rigged system. this is -- if you like this deranged, stupid guy and you like that, well, then, okay, you are going to go with it. but, you know, the extraordinary thing, if he happens to win, will be like, wow, this is a version of shooting people on fifth avenue times ten and, well, no, he still gets a pass. so we'll see. i am, you know, i am in my stoic way have been thinking this is 50/50 even when it won't 50/50 in june. i pretended. but i think it is, and, you know, and i resist moments where, wow, this is exciting. but to me, i mean, growing up next to iowa and nebraska and caring about what happens in nebraska tonight more than i should because it could be the

-- it could be the winning thing. my one vote in my hometown of omaha, my electoral vote. but the iowa poll that came out sunday, i know well enough, i should ignore individual polls and what they mean, but, you know, it's hard not to look at that and say, you know, when all women in iowa of 65 or over by a 2-1 margin are saying, no, i am not voting for this guy, that, you know, what happens in iowa cannot be limited to iowa it seems to me, unless her polling is crazily wrong and that is not her history. so i have gotten a little hopeful despite my stoicism and prepared for as i was if 2016 when everybody said hillary clinton is going to win. no. they say it's 1-6. what does that remind me of? russian roulette, so you can lose. >> in all of these discussions for weeks and months covering

the campaign and all of the public utterances by both candidates on both sides, you have been around this country multiple states, multiple interviews. does it strike you at all that the one word that you don't hear very often is covid? and the impact that covid had on the lived experience of families with children in schools, the lifted experience of american families in supermarkets, gas stations, the lived experience, only four years ago, of covid. >> well, this is the challenge democrats have is that they get all of the hangover from covid that falls on them like every incumbent government across every democracy around the world. there has been politically a sort of covid hangover that has been challenging. manifested, obviously, in inflation. other quality of life issues. what you don't have though is much memory about the government that was in charge when covid happened, which i think has been

a challenge for democrats to overcome, that trump doesn't take the hit on his handling of covid, and democrats do bear the brunt on the aftermath of covid. not saying it's fair. i think that's the reality though of what democrats are having to deal with. i think trump has been stung in the closing weeks of the campaign less about anything he did as president, with the exception of the three judges he put on the court that overturned roe, but his conduct now. it's hard to imagine what trump would do differently if he was trying to lose the race in the final two weeks here. he has said and done so many inflammatory things that are uniquely alienating for the voters he needs, namely women in the political center. he is alienating them every day. final point on the iowa question. i heard of other private polling in iowa that shows a number

that's not terribly far avi kwa ame from what selzer had, in part because the abortion ban has just gone in effect in that state and i think that is animating women had iowa. the question, will that extend to wisconsin and michigan states not far away. those iowa numbers i think are not that far off from where the race is going to land. >> lemir, to his point, i mean, some may choose to forget covid. women know what is happening to us right now due to trump's health care bans. >> and chris matthews, that's where i wanted to go to you, this idea of we know the questions about polls and what voter group are the polls not picking up. on the democratic side, women. republican women across the aisle because of these abortion bans, because of health care. the trump campaign has bet on young men in particular. young men who often don't turn out to vote. they joult sourced their ground game in pennsylvania, elon musk, offering million dollars checks to voters to come out and

register and cast a ballot for trump. are you seeing any evidence that the musk ground game is working at all for trump? >> look, that's been in dispute with the courts and it's hard to figure out what the courts are saying about that one. but the message that has gotten through is what we talked about, you talked about on the program so many times, joe and mika, about trump saying what i am going to do. he has that aspect for the 1940s. he says what he is going to do. he said there needs to be some form of punishment. punishment. what a strange word to use about voters. i want them to be punished. women who have an abortion. be punished. that incredible language which is reappearing in the ads in philadelphia in this battleground state, over and over again people look and say, wait a minute, he is talking about me. he is talking about me and my body. this is all politics, local guys? is as local as you can get. of this is your bed body. this guy's saying i am going to

punish you. it's extraordinary. and the fact that they brought that back from 2015, he really means it. that's why he put those three guys on the supreme court, those three people. he wanted to do what he wanted to do. everything that's going on in the country, all the hard that's going on in the states around the country, all of it's going on because trump wanted it to happen, he wanted to cause pain and suffering and punishment. i have never heard a politician like this. i want to punish women. that's half the voters and you are talking about punishing them and it's all over the world. his words. nobody else's. he said it. he promised it. he has done it. >> whether we like it or not. >> or not. >> chris matthews, jonathan martin and kurt anderson, thank you all very much for being on the show this morning. >> thank you, guys. willie, it's going to be very interesting to see what's happening. people are in different ubls

bubbles. we always remember the famous quote from 1972 after nixon's landslide. who was it? pauline kel? said, manhattan, i think she -- new york, i can't understand how richard nixon won. i didn't know a single person -- he won 49 states. perhaps -- i don't know. people are saying that maybe that quote was oversimplified, but it's going to be very interesting to see what happens on fox news only because they have been steady and every day talking about the trump landslide, the trump landslide. they are still out there talking about this, very confidently, even though the trump campaign is now starting to quietly talk about reservations. and what i'm looking for tonight, again it's a tie. we don't know how this is going to break. >> don't say that -- the polls say that. >> the polls say that. we don't know which way the

polls are going to break. it will be interesting. think about four years ago. their political -- their poll director called arizona. he was the first to get it right and he got it right and for that he lost his job. you actually had bret baier sending emails saying, we have to reverse that call. we have egg on our face with our viewers. our viewers don't like it. and so they fired, of course the fox news political editor and the situation is getting uncomfortable, bret baier says. really uncomfortable he wrote in an email days after the election, suggesting, quote, pull the call. i keep having to defend this on air and ask questions about it. it seems we are holding on for pride and it's hurting us. that's a call made. a call that was right.

and they were trying to get it pulled off the air. i'm wondering what's going to happen tonight because we go back to 2012. when they were so sure that mitt romney was going to win, they were shocked that night and it took them a while, even the smartest people in the room, took them a while to come to the realization. what does tonight look like if, if -- and there is a 50/50 chance if it starts breaking for kamala harris? >> the response to that email, if you take a step further from the washington desk and the decision desk was, this isn't about pride. this is about math. to their credit, the decision desk stuck to the call. as you said, they were vindicated. they were right. people watching should understand there is a church and state separation between what we do and the decision desk, which is purely looking at data and taking that job very seriously. >> and yet they fired their -- >> right? >> exactly.

>> and but you're right. fox news and primetime and even some parts of the day side have been telling a story about an overwhelming win for donald trump. if you hear every day that kamala harris is terrible and the country is in ruins, which of course it's not, you won't be able to process if she wins georgia or north carolina or all these states you have told -- you have been told she has no chance, and that helps donald trump make his argument. >> feeding into the anger. >> the anger and the conspiracy theories. we already heard yesterday from donald trump jr. talking about trucks of ballots being dumped in wisconsin. what does that mean? it's what steve kornacki just told us. those are the ballots fairly submitted and voted that are being counted later. so donald trump calls that a dump of mysterious ballots. no. that's mail in and early voting being counted. that's the way it works. >> still ahead on "morning joe," live reports from several key battlegrounds, including one county in pennsylvania. that has voted for the eventual

winner in the last four presidential elections. we're back in 90 seconds.

♪♪ half past the hour. decision 2024 here on msnbc and we have nbc correspondents spanned across the country and

on the ground in the key battleground states. joining us now rehema ellis, live at a polling station in erie, pennsylvania. joe fryer is in a suburb of milwaukee, wisconsin. maggie vespa, grand rapids, michigan. antonia hylton at a polling location in raleigh, north carolina. and blayne alexander is in marietta, georgia. rehema, we start with you. there has been a legal fight or ballots in erie county with both parties filing lawsuits against the county board of elections. what's going on? what's the latest? >> reporter: mika, before i get into that, i got to tell you, we talk a lot of times about the impact of ads and what is influencing people. i have been hearing you guys talk about it all morning, and during the course of the election process, and a guy told us just a little while ago, he had been watching a ton of ads and guess what he decided? he decided yesterday who he is going to vote for.

he is voting for harris. a tremendous impact those ads have had on him. another person told us that he voted or who voted for trump said he decided months ago what he was going to do. in terms of that lawsuit now, you're right. there have been both the democrats and the republicans who jointly filed with the -- a lawsuit against the county board of elections because there was complaints about people not getting it their mail-in ballots. the court decided that the county had to make provisions for them to rectify that, and they did. four extra days after early voting was ended they allowed people to come to the courthouse and cast their ballots. here is the thing that's important that you point out. this county, erie county, makes up 2% of the total population of pennsylvania, and yet as you said, it has a large footprint in presidential elections because it has historically voted for the winner of the presidential election in the last four, and now these

provisional ballots that people can file when they come to a polling place like this and around erie county, if they did not get their mail in ballot they can present a provisional ballot. those will not be counted until friday. so that means we may not know the outcome of this election for a while now because every single one of those ballots is important. you remember the last time we were here a and it took until saturday before we actually knew who was the winner coming out of pennsylvania. >> that's right. waiting for pennsylvania. rehema, let's swing from pennsylvania to wisconsin. that where we find nbc's joe fryer live from waukesha county. joe, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: hey there, willie. we are in a village. the polls opened half an hour ago here. look at this line around. these are folks who filled out their ballots. they are waiting to put it in the machine so their votes are counted. before the doors opened at 7:00 a.m. local time, we saw 50,

60 people standing outside getting ready to vote. the line was wrapping around the building. people wanting to get the vote in before they get to work for the day. this is part of waukesha county, part of what we call the wow counties. these are the suburbs around milwaukee. they have long been a gop stronghold, but over the last decade we have seen democrats chipping away at that gop advantage. you can even look at the numbers. in 2016, hillary clinton she got about 33% of the vote here. fast forward four years later, president biden getting nearly 39% of the vote. that's the highest democrats have done in waukesha county since michael dukakis. democrats are hoping if they can push hard here, they can get vice president harris to 40%, that would be the first time that happened here in this county sips the early 1960s. mika. >> wow. all right. moving to michigan now for the first time, residents could cast

their ballots in person during early voting. more than 3 million people have voted through polling sites as well as mail-in and absentee ballots. that's about 45% of registered voters in michigan. maggie vespa, how are the crowds looking in grand rapids? >> we had a line out the door around 7:00 eastern. we have a lull right now in grand rapids in part because, and we will see throughout the day, more than 1 million people, 1.2 million, took advantage of that first ever opportunity here in michigan to vote early and in person. so we had that option. they had the mail-in ballots option. we are talking over 3 million people, 45% of registered voters in michigan have already cast their ballots before today even started. now, as far as issues go here among michigan voters, obviously, the state is home to america's auto industry. inflation is a key issue. we also see preserving democracy and abortion is top issues on minds of michigan voters.

obviously, those issues have been hammered home by vice president kamala harris and former president trump. both campaigns making a dozen stops, including last night, in this key battleground state. a number of polls show vice president harris has a narrow lead here in michigan, but multiple polls show that lead is as little as one point. we are talking a dead heat in this key battleground state as well. both sides trying to get 15 electoral votes. i know it's a key question. in 2020 we got the state calling for joe biden around 6:00 p.m. the day after election day. another first here in michigan, clerks across the state were for the first i am ever allowed to start preprocessing those mail-in ballots as early as eight days ago. they are hoping that speeds things up. the secretary of state said we could see results by midday tomorrow. willie. >> should make a big difference. maggie, thank you. down in north carolina, a state trump won in 2020, the harris team has put in play. what can you tell us about the race there?

>> reporter: yeah, democrats here this morning, they are really confident. they tell me they think this is the closest dynamic and level of energy they have seen since 2008. that's of course when barack obama was the last democrat to win north carolina. and they think that things are different this time around for a few reasons. the first is, of course, abortion. and the fact that they have been able to reach women across the aisle or unafill kbrated voters, which there are many in the state, really passionate about women's reproductive rights. then the historic black communities here and the ability to get them to turn out. the beginning of the early voting period republicans were really strong. the last several days we started to see the black community come out at high levels and also the youth vote. that's the last piece here. all these young gen-zers in these college towns in north carolina, the democratic party has made a huge investment in them and they started to see that come out in the last few days of early voting, too. so there is an immense amount of excitement here and focus, and

even that iowa poll, frankly, you might think what does iowa have anything to do with north carolina? there are parts of the electorate that look similar to rural north carolina, too. if they think if she overperforms with people in iowa she probably is here, and that's our recipe for success. this is also going to be an interesting state because we will probably find out sooner. polls close at 7:30. this is a state we may know by 10:30, 11:00 p.m. mika. >> georgia, more than 4 million early voters have already cast a ballot. what's going on there? >> reporter: mika, you said it. this is a record-breaking election in the state of georgia. that number you said is more than half of georgia's registered voters. they have already cast their ballot. georgia officials today are expecting another million or so voters to come out and cast their ballots in person. i am standing here at one polling place in marietta just outside of atlanta. we have seen a steady stream of

voters coming in all day. one told me it took five minutes to cast that blipt. when you talk about places here in georgia, comeback county is one of the places that that both campaigns are looking at closely. this is just outside of atlanta. it's in metro atlanta. this is that highly coveted suburban vote. we saw both campaigns really making a strong play for voters here in the closing days of this campaign, but already we are seeing at least one lawsuit that's kind of major here, and it has to do with absentee ballots. now, cobb county was delayed in sending out 3,400 or so absentee ballots. a lower court here ruled because people received them late, they could have three extra days to turn in the ballots on friday. georgia supreme court said not so fast. they are going to pause that decision and rule those ballots mr. not immediately be counted. so what must happen now is that if you have one of those late ballots, you have to bring it in person or come vote in person

and those ballots will be set aside and still not determined whether or not they will ultimately be counted in this election, mika. >> all right. nbc's blayne alexander live in georgia. an phone yeah hilton in north carolina. maggie vespa in michigan. joe fryer in wisconsin. and rehema ellis reporting from pennsylvania. thank you all very much for your reporting. still ahead, we dig into the stark differences between kamala harris and donald trump's closing messages. "morning joe," election day, will be right back. ght back

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san francisco's leadership is failing us. that's why mark farrell is endorsing prop d. 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.

san francisco's leadership is failing us. that's why mark farrell is endorsing prop d. 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.

welcome back. vice president kamala harris and former president trump made their final pitch to voters in several campaign rallies yesterday. the moods and messaging were starkly different. harris offering optimism and hope, while trump closed out his campaign literally at 2:13 a.m. this morning going after his opponents and painting a bleak picture of the future. >> we are optimistic and excited about what we will do together, and we here know, it is time for a new generation of leadership in america. >> for the past nine years, we have been fighting against the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth. >> instead of stewing over an enemy's list, an enemies list, i will spend every day working on my to-do list on your behalf. >> a crazy, horrible human being, nancy pelosi, who cheats like hell. she's a crooked person.

she's a bad person. evil. she's an evil, sick, crazy -- oh no. it starts with a b, but i won't say it. >> but in two days we are going to take out the trash in washington, d.c., and the trash's name is kamala harris. >> tomorrow, women all across america of every age, both parties, are going to send a loud and clear message to donald trump, whether he likes it or not. [ cheers and applause ] >> i am not going to be a leader who thinks that people who disagree with me should be put in jail. >> our stupid generals, our terrible generals that, you know, the guys up top like milley, like kelly, real losers. kelly was dumb as a rock. >> my pledge to you to always

put country above party and self. >> adam shifty schiff. i call him pencil neck. he's got the smallest neck i've ever seen. he's got about a four. and he's got the biggest head. i don't know how the neck can hold the head. he's an unattractive guy, both inside and out. >> this is about a future with freedom and opportunity and dignity for all americans. >> i will prevent world war iii from happening. i know all the players. it's a very good chance that it will indeed happen. the level of enthusiasm is five times greater than their level. they have no level of enthusiasm. they don't believe in her. >> and momentum is on our side. momentum is on our side. can you feel it? we have momentum, right? [ cheers and applause ] >> i mean, we're certainly on the 2 or 3 yard line, and the only way we can blow it is if you blow it. i've given you the ball.

i mean, you've got to go and vote. >> and make no mistake, we will win. we will win. >> that was a look at the closing messages from the presidential candidates. still ahead, congressman jim clyburn of south carolina is standing by. he joins the political roundtable on this fourth hour of "morning joe" on election day in america. fourth hour of "morning joe" on election day in america contracture. i want a nonsurgical treatment. and if nonsurgical treatment isn't offered? i'll get a second opinion. take charge of your treatment. if you can't lay your hand flat, visit findahandspecialist.com to get started. have you ever considered getting a walk-in tub? well, look no further. findahandspecialist.com proudly made in tennessee, a safe step walk-in tub is the best in it's class. the ultra-low easy step helps keep you safe from having to climb over those high walled tubs, allowing you to age gracefully in the home you love. and now, back by popular demand, for a limited time, when you purchase your brand-new safe step walk-in tub, you'll receive a free shower package!

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coming up, our next guest is predicting a win for kamala harris in battleground nevada. veteran journalist john wall ston explains how independent voters could sway the race. that's straight ahead on "morning joe." ngni joe." plaque psoriasis. thanks to skyrizi i'm playing with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to.

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these polls, you know those women who claim they have the power to guess, to know what gender your baby is going to be, like, you're having a girl. i'm always right about this. and then you have a boy, and

they never bring it up again. they're like that. there are only two choices. you have a 50% chance of being right. it's not like you picked the trifecta at the belmont stakes. it's heads or tails. at the end, the pollsters who were wrong will quietly disappear. you called 800 losers who didn't have enough sense to not answer an unknown call. that's all you did. the results of thele pos on "family feud" are more scientific. survey says, oprah, rfk jr., donald trump, kamala harris, nobody knows anything. that's right. we don't know anything. welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe." it's 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. in the east on this election day. the polls are now open in parts of 45 states and the district of

columbia as voters are casting their ballots in what appears to be one of the closest presidential elections in recent history. last night, vice president kamala harris delivered her final pitch in pennsylvania, while former president donald trump held his last rally in michigan. we have two reports for you to start off with, beginning with nbc news chief white house correspondent peter alexander, traveling with the harris campaign. >> reporter: vice president harris punctuating a frenetic final day in philadelphia with an army of supporters in front of the famed "rocky" steps. >> here at these famous steps, a tribute to those who start as the underdog and climb to victory. >> reporter: closing out her 3 1/2-month sprint in the critical battleground. >> one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime, and the momentum is on our side. >> reporter: the vice president

turning to star power and celebrity endorsements on election eve. ♪ god bless america ♪ >> reporter: all of it after harris had already swung through pittsburgh. >> we need everyone to vote, pennsylvania. >> reporter: the harris campaign touting its robust ground game operation with harris herself making a surprise appearance to knock on doors. >> i just wanted to come by and say i hope to earn your vote. >> reporter: earlier making a detour at a puerto rico restaurant, trying to capitalize on that offensive comment about the island made last week by a comedian during former president trump's madison square garden rally. >> i stand here proud of my longstanding commitment to puerto rico and her people, and i will be a president for all americans. >> reporter: ahead of election day, the nation's capital bracing for possible unrest with giant steel fencing going up around the white house, capitol and the vice president's residence and many store fronts

boarded up. last night in pennsylvania, oprah winfrey delivers this dire warning. >> if we don't show up tomorrow, it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again. >> reporter: still, the vice president projected a positive message without ever mentioning former president trump by name, urging americans to turn the page. >> we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in america. >> reporter: for donald trump, a final campaign closeout overnight in grand rapids, michigan. >> this is my last rally. can you believe it? the rallies, these big, beautiful rallies. >> reporter: the former president not taking the stage until after midnight, delivering a familiar message in the same city he ended his previous two white house bids. >> we will launch the most extraordinary economic boom the world has ever seen.

>> reporter: trump sowing doubt about a potentially lengthy vote-counting process whanchts . >> what the hell is happening inside those machines? we want the answer tonight. >> reporter: while insulting his political opponents, including nancy pelosi. >> she's an evil, sick, crazy -- b -- oh no. it starts with a b, but i won't say it. i want to say it. >> reporter: the late-night rally capping off a four-stop battleground blitz across the swing states that will likely determine the next president. earlier in pittsburgh, trump laying out his closing argument. >> america will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before. >> reporter: during a lengthy and at times meandering speech, trump appears to blame his supporters in pennsylvania. >> we're on the 3 yard line.

the only way we can blow it is if you blow it. i've given you the ball. you've got to vote. >> reporter: jd vance stumping in georgia, a state trump lost by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020 in hopes to flip this time around. in the days after that comedian's comments calling puerto rico garbage and president biden appearing to say the same of trump supporters, disputed by the white house, vance had the last word. >> we are going to take out the trash in washington, d.c., and the trash's name is kamala harris. >> wow. garrett haake with that report. joining us now, the chair of the harris/walz campaign, jen o'malley dillon. >> how is everybody feeling in the campaign? is tonight going to be a good night for the campaign? >> morning, guys. it's election day. so we are so happy for today,

and we're feeling really good about what we're seeing. we felt really good as we closed out this election, closed out early voting. as you know, we have a lot of work do today. people in this country are voting already. we're confident they're going to continue to vote. we're confident that the votes are all going to be counted. we are excited to see the response that people have had, such a strong response, especially in this closing window of time for the vice president. i was so proud to see what the team put on last night across the country, but to hear from the vice president, the american people are looking for an optimistic leader who wants to bring people together, wants to be a president for all americans. that's really what this country is responding to. we're seeing that in all the metrics we're looking at. but we know this is going to be a close election. we're going to make sure we're

around as long as that takes, and we are going to keep making sure we're giving everyone the information. >> jen, good morning. you made it to election day. let's talk about where to sort of look early in the night about some indications of where this may go. where will you have your eye at 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 tonight to get some sense of things? >> we obviously are looking at our expectations based on, you know, across the entire country, how are we performing based on what we think and expect to see, and we'll be looking at that across the board. of course, we obviously have a lot of battleground states that are going to be coming in early in the night. we're pleased with how we closed strong in georgia and north carolina. the overall turnout could be as

much as 70 or 75% of the vote already came in on early votes. so we're looking at who's turning out today. we see in each one of our battleground states this is truly a margin of error race. i've never seen margins this close. while we know what the numbers are and we're very focused on looking at our states, we also know they might not all operate the same. we're going to be patient, but we know some of our bigger battleground states are not going to be fully tallied until later in the night, early in the morning, and we're going to stay focused that we're looking at all of those and doing the work we can as polls close tonight. >> john. >> hey, jen. i got a two-part question for you. the first is, everybody in the world, i'm sure, including you, were stunned when ann selzer's

poll came out over the weekend. are you seeing any sign that the trump ground game is in some steal think, covert way, operating at anything like the level that yours is? >> so, first of all, you know, i love iowa, but we are focused on our path to 270. and we, you know, obviously are always going to be looking for positive signs. there's nobody that's better at polling in iowa than ann selzer, so we take that seriously, but we're not distracted from the job that we have. i have to say our organization have obviously been around a long time, as you guys have, and i have been part of so many of these ground operations. i really truly have never seen the kind of organization, volunteer response, people out there knocking on doors. it's really extraordinary. i know we talk about this from a standpoint of big numbers, how many doors we're knocking, the millions of people, the tens of

thousands of shifts we're doing, but really the quality of the engagement, the time people are taking to train, the interactions laying out what was at stake, which i think was quite stark last night. we really are so proud of what we're building, but it is a testament to the vice president that we keep seeing the growth of our organization as people keep turning out. we are doing a lot on the doors, on the phones in every one of our battleground states, and in a lot of those places we're the only ones out there. >> harris campaign chair jen o'malley dillon, thank you very much. let's bring in molly jong-fast and president and ceo of the national urban league, mark morial. >> what are you expecting today? >> i'll be looking at the turnout in milwaukee, detroit, philadelphia and atlanta for signs as to how those states will go. this is a turnout election.

if the base in those urban communities turns out strong, it's going to be a good night for kamala harris. >> what are the early indicators? >> the early indicators -- and i've been to all of these places. i think the early indicators are there's a tremendous amount of energy on the ground, people knocking on doors, people calling, texting, almost where you're knocking on a door and someone says someone's already been here three times. >> right. >> that's a good sign, but the work has to continue. the other thing that's interesting is that there is so much self-propelled campaigning, unconnected to the campaign, unconnected to the democratic party, being undertaken by community and grassroots organizations on their own. so i'll be looking for those signs early as to a signal. >> molly, let's talk about women. >> yeah. >> and how powerful their voices already have been in this election. we talked about the selzer poll,

"the des moines register," that leap skeptical that they're going to win iowa, but perhaps some indications there about where women are heading tonight. >> i think what we saw from the harris campaign is they tried very hard to create this permission structure with the liz cheneys and the republican women and the ad that your husband is not going to know how you vote, the julia roberts' ad. your vote is private, you can vote for whoever you want, your husband will not know. i do think white women is a huge voting bloc. it's a very consistent voting bloc. it's not like going after young men. i think we may see if there's even a little movement, that could be seismic. >> john, what are you seeing on the campaign trail that would give you an indication on which way this race is going?

>> part of the reason i asked jen about the ground game, you know, we have had, particularly in 2020 when trump ended upturning out 8 million votes that he hadn't gotten in 2016, there was a phantom ground game, a stealthy ground game in 2020. you never know. you don't see what you don't see, but you really don't see it out there. >> i told them the story, didn't give any names though, of the texas republican you told me about that actually moved to pennsylvania. >> yeah. there was a guy who worked on rick perry's campaign who moved to pennsylvania a few months ago, showed up at an unaffiliated according to the pennsylvania voter rolls with his wife, told the story at some length about how he had three different teams of harris/walz field operatives who would show up three times a week for the

better part of the time he'd been living in pennsylvania, particularly in the last month or so. he voted early. as soon as he voted early, the harris/walz people stopped asking him and focused on his wife. he was a never trump republican, basically. the point is, in the whole time, they never had a visit from anybody from the trump campaign. his data is available in the same way. all this data is public. so the field operations are using the same registration data and the same voter rolls. he is stunned he would have been a prime subject to be hit by a last-minute turnout efforts from the republican side and hasn't seen it. and that story is reflective of -- i have done less in the sunbelt states, but in pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin, those kind of stories you hear them over and over again. i was in michigan a couple weeks

ago. a veteran from the obama campaign who had seen their field operation at 8:00 and 12:00 and said the operation that jen o'malley dillon has right now, the one from 2008 and 2012 was like a typewriter compared to a quantum computer. he was stunned by how much better it was, how much more sophisticated and the sheer boots on the ground because they have so much money. he said we just don't see the trump ground game here. again, if this race is really that close -- and who knows -- donald trump could end up winning by three points and we'll be shocked tomorrow. but if all the data is correct and the race is close, that message on the ground -- >> in 2020 when circumstances

forced the use of technology, the use of targeting, i think what they did is learn lessons from 2016 and 2020 and apply it to the fact that now that covid is over, you can have people knocking on doors without masks, knocking on doors, doing things in person, which i think is highly effective to talk to voters neighbor to neighbor when they get tired of all the ads. >> yeah, a lot of ads. >> willie, during covid, you had democrats that did not want to go out that were doing turnout operations early on, registering. and it just stopped in like march, april of 2020. republicans -- they kept going out. we were looking at the early votes. some of them look good for democrats, some of them look good for republicans. but when you look at the early votes, there's just no way to compare it to what happened in 2020, because you had most democrats afraid to go out,

sending by mail. you had republicans who wanted to vote day of. now you have donald trump and the republicans encouraging their voters to vote early. that, again, makes this election sort of even more of a tossup because it's so hard to read data from the early votes. though i will say john ralston shocked a lot of people yesterday. we're going to have john, but john predicted that nevada was going to go for harris, which really surprised a lot of people, but he's sort of the ann selzer of nevada in that he's undefeated in his calls out there. >> he's going to be on in a minute to explain what he's seen in nevada that made him feel that way. donald trump has been all over the place, yes, encouraging early voting, but two days ago said we should vote on election day, it takes the fraud out of it. we talked about for months and months republicans at the state

level in those blue wall states especially have been sending up signals to the trump campaign, hey guys, are we going to open an office in this district? i see nothing. it appears that has held up. one caveat is, i don't think any of us would be shocked if donald trump won those states by three points. you go into a tie. i don't think it would be a shock if we wake up tomorrow and donald trump as won, either way, because it is such a close race. >> mark more y'all, thank you very much for coming on. coming, corporate america has largely stayed silent this election season, but are ceos finally ready to speak out? cnbc's andrew ross sorkin joins us straight ahead to explain and has wall street's early reaction to election day. "morning joe" will be right back. to election day. "morning joe" will be right back

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san francisco's leadership is failing us. mark farrell is endorsing prop d. 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.

san francisco's leadership is failing us. that's why mark farrell is endorsing prop d. 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. ♪♪

22 past the hour. business leaders around the country are beginning to consider whether or not to weigh in on the presidential election. let's bring in coanchor of cnbc's "squawk box" and "new york times" columnist andrew ross sorkin, and the host of the podcast "on brand with donny deutsch," donny deutsch is with us as well. >> how are you doing? >> good to see you. >> good to see you. >> could you please sit down? thank you. >> i don't have a chair. have you asked them yet about whether any of them have watched the disclaimer on apple tv? >> no. i'm not interested in asking that question. >> i'm on the third episode. >> oh, are you? >> yeah. >> this week, oh my god, it started to take a twist. all i can tell you is this, beware of narratives. >> yeah.

andrew ross sorkin -- >> i think that's the main point of the whole show. >> it is. andrew ross sorkin, any more preemptive capitulations? >> we've talked for many months about how most ceos, the big ones have remained silent, both out of fear for retaliation from former president trump himself if he becomes president and this view that this country has become so tribal that an elon musk and others can mobilize people against a company. one thing that's happened in the past 24 hours is there have been private conversations particularly in new york city, the partnership for new york which represents the biggest companies in this city had a conference call yesterday with the lead lawyer for kamala harris to talk about what could happen over the next couple days and also what kind of steps they may take or feel like they could take or need to take if they are going to speak out about election integrity. i think they're going to focus on election integrity. the other thing that's happening, though, is all of

these conversations seem to be about doing it as a group. i don't know if you're going to see individuals. again, this goes to the fascist tendencies of what's happening to the country about speaking out as a group and whether they feel like there is protection in numbers as opposed to being willing to say, you know what, whatever's going on is not right, if in fact, it isn't. i don't want to prejudge. >> obviously they're businessmen and women. they're making cynical calculations about what would be best for their companies if donald trump becomes president. but if vice president harris wins tonight in some convincing fashion -- we have no evidence that's going to happen, but let's take that for argument's sake. do they immediately flip and say we loved her all along? >> of course! >> i've never heard a question with such an obvious answer. >> it might have been a leading question. >> it's a rhetorical question, in fact. >> 100%.

and in fact, i wouldn't be surprised -- and in fact, barry diller suggested yesterday that somebody like an elon musk come out publicly and say, you know what, i'm a patriot and i am going to go work now for kamala harris and create her efficiency, you know, the board of efficiency plans and help cut government waste. >> i can't. i can't. >> let me just tell you something. >> i can't. >> if that were to happen, i will just remind everybody about what the mantra is on "morning joe" -- >> i know. i know. i know. >> -- we, like baptists, are in the conversion business. and when somebody walks down the aisle on the 14th verse of justice i am, you shake their hand and say, welcome, brother, welcome, sister, welcome into the family of faith. >> he'll be jumping around back here with his t-shirt off. >> i'm just talking any of them. >> there's a competing way to think about this, which is,

we'll remember who the cowards were and we have the receipts. >> well, how about this. how about abraham lincoln after 700,000 people had been killed in the civil war, what did he say in the second inaugural? with malice toward none. whatever side ends up winning tonight can do it tomorrow or next week. it's going to be hard, though, isn't it, donny, for you? i can tell. you're gritting your teeth. >> as a business guy, let's talk about brands for a second. what's on the ballot is the brand of the usa and what we stand for. originally we had a mission statement. it was the constitution that laid out our values. our brand, the first american brand was usa. stands for hope and freedom and honesty and decency and togetherness and inclusiveness and kindness. that's on the ballot getting rebranded. yes, we are voting for two

candidates. we are voting for what this country stands for going forward and that's frightening. >> andrew, you talk to people every day, including somebody on your set, who feels just the opposite, that actually if democrats win, it's the end of america as we know it? >> look, i have now talked and interviewed enough business folks and other folks on the other side of the aisle on this issue who genuinely believe, for whatever reason, that this country will be better off with former president trump in office and that the -- that the u.s. and the brand of this country will be, quote, unquote, stronger. i think there's a lot of people at this table that don't agree with that. we've been living through this. that's how divided this entire country feels. given how razor hair we are here on the fence -- >> razor hair?

razor's edge? >> razor's edge. >> i want to congratulate mika. mika, you have so stood up for women. this election is going to come down to women. i've said it all along. you've been so passionate, such an advocate. women are going to show their superiority in the election. they will protect us. >> i don't think it's me. i think it's women. women, i think, could make it happen. >> donny, i want to congratulate you. years ago you would wear nothing but baby gap t-shirts. you are now wearing ties that looks like a half windsor. you've got the knot pretty much squared up straight. proud of you. >> donny is wearing a women's boot. >> wow! >> i think that's powerful. >> it's true. >> i had not noticed that. >> i don't think you can see the shoes from here.

>> those boots are made for walking. >> it's better than those pumps that he sometimes wears. here's my question for you. >> yes, sir. >> they're showing the boots. we've been talking about the various scenarios if trump wins, if harris wins in the business community. here's a likelier scenario, that we have weeks of protracted litigation, contestation, if harris wins narrowly, they're going to try to fight it out in the courts, try to steal the election back from her. what you had in 2020 in the face of the stop the steal movement was a united business elite which enforced stability. they lined up on the side of the courts and joe biden. >> yes. >> is there that kind of unanimity in the business community now? >> i deeply fear that it does not exist in the same way today, and i deeply fear it in part because of the court system, if it goes to the supreme court, there is a view that these

ceos -- i don't want to be too cynical about it. it's not about being on the wrong side of history. they don't want to be on the wrong side of who's going to be ultimately in charge. >> or of the corporate elite. >> they're not afraid of being on the wrong side of harris, they're afraid of being on the wrong side of trump. >> and the corporate elite. >> if, in fact, the courts were to ultimately rule that trump becomes the president, that they would then get retribution for standing up in a way that they didn't four years ago. that, i think, is something to worry about. >> again, that's out of the autocratic playbook. >> straight up. >> you threaten people. you threaten liz cheney with death. you threaten, you know, your democratic opponents with arrest from the army, military tribunals. you threaten to suspend the constitution. you threaten to be a dictator on

day one. you threaten news networks that you shut them down. >> you followed through on your threats during the first administration. >> people can stupidly say, oh, but at least he did nothing his first administration. andrew, these ceos are smart enough to know that not only will we have january 6th, but also he tried to get his first attorney general and second attorney general to arrest hillary clinton. they refused. he tried to get joe biden arrested two weeks before the election. his attorney general refused. they know that. >> he went after businesses in the first administration, harley-davidson, coca -- there's a long list of companies where he woke up one morning and took to twitter and created demonstrable problems for those companies. that's one of the reasons i think the ceos are more reticent, unfortunately, than they has been in the past. >> andrew ross sorkin, donny deutsch, thank you both.

appreciate it. >> how are you feeling? >> cautiously optimistic. our next guest predicts a narrow win for kamala harris in a key battleground state, narrow, all thanks to independent voters. we'll tell you where that is, next on "morning joe." , next on s"morning joe."

♪♪ beautiful live picture of atlanta, a little haze over the city this morning, some low clouds. 4 million georgians already have cast a ballot in this election. secretary of state brad raffensperger is reassuring

voters today's process will be smooth and secure. here's some of what he had to say yesterday. >> it is easy to vote and hard to cheat. if you're one of the 4 million voters who have voted early, congratulations. you have made history. i know in georgia we're going to have a free, fair and fast election. i'm really excited about our process, because tomorrow night all these people that voted early, that's about 65% expected votes, will be reported one hour after polls close. all the absentee ballots that have come in, will have been ready for tabulation and those will be reported. that's 70% that will be reported by 8:00 p.m. plus or minus. some polls close at 7:00 p.m. in those counties. >> some have capitulated to trump. that man right there is not one of them. >> incredible. >> again and again there was pressure applied to him from donald trump and many other republicans to change the vote, and he said, no, you lost.

>> stone cold no. >> brian kemp did the same thing over and over again, you would think to their detriment, but they won in a big way in their primary battles two years later. you go to mike pence, a decision to save the republican is another vice president who told him you have no choice but to save the republic, and that would be dan quayle. you have republican election workers up in michigan, again, threatened for what they did. maricopa county republicans over and over again said we can keep counting this all you want, but we're not going to change the numbers. so they held four years ago. let's hope they hold again tonight. >> absolutely. georgia counted three times in 2020, including once by hand to make sure it was right. meanwhile, the ceo and editor of the nevada independent john ralston who has a sterling track record when it comes to

predictions in nevada about elections, now ralston is predicting a narrow victory for kamala harris over donald trump by less than half a point. ralston is also predicting a win for jacky rosen over her opponent sam brown with a more comfortable margin of five points. john joins us from las vegas. polls there open at the top of the hour. john, great to have you with us, the man who knows nevada better than anybody. tell us about this call you've made. this is a prediction based on what you've seen and what you know about the state. how did you come to that conclusion? >> thanks for building me up. now if i'm wrong, it's really going to look bad. i have to trust sources on both sides who say this race is going to be very, very close in their data. listen, it's a weird year in nevada. you guys know this. usually the democrats bank a bunch of votes in early voting and they're ahead and

republicans can't catch up. a lot of mail ballots in clark county -- and we've become a state where mail is big -- have not come in yet, and those are heavily democratic. they've be 2-1 in the last few polls. you have to trust what's happened in the last four presidential cycles here, which is the so-called reed machine named for the late harry reid is to get out the vote, not just in people mailing their ballots, but dropping them in drop boxes today on election day. there are going to be tens of thousands of those, i believe. i think harris will just eke it out, but it's going to be close. >> we have been talking for some time about ann selzer. ann almost always gets iowa right. you always have gotten the nevada presidential election right. every prediction has been correct. is this one a little more difficult for you, because you're having to wade through independents?

i remember in 2020 people making terrible miscalculations about independents in florida, thinking they were going to break 3 or 4% for the democrats. they broke overwhelmingly for donald trump in 2020. so you've wandered into that sort of political minefield of independents. with your undefeated streak on the line, you've si decided thee going to break more for democrats. why is that? >> i know there's some kind of crimson tide joke i could make sure, but i'm not going to do that to you, joe. >> that's good. >> and i won't talk about the undefeated wolverines last year. let's get back to something important and why i think that the independents are going to break this year for harris and why it's so important in nevada this year. they passed an automatic voter registration bill that has caused a number of nonpartisans to explode. they're the plurality in the

state now, joe. they're a third of the actual electorate or a little less than that, going to be 30% or above of the electorate. and the democrats knew this was happening and they register add lot of their voters as nonpartisans, because that was their preference. what the democrats here have done expertly has been to find their voters and get them to the polls. one other data point, take it for what it's worth, is the last really credible poll that was taken and how d it is to poll in nevada, was the "new york times" poll. it showed harris winning by three. i think that's probably too much, but it showed her winning independents by eight or nine points. i think she needs to win independents by about five points to win this race. so it's doable. >> john, talk to us a little bit more about the ground game there, harry reid's famous ground game, the culinary workers and their impact and a hotly contested senate race.

>> you're right about that. if you look to the senate race in 2022 what happened was adam lacksal was ahead of catherine cortez masto on election night before all the mail ballots had been counted. because of the culinary union in nevada getting its members to go to those drop boxes and cast their votes. it's not just the culinary union, though. there's a coordinated campaign with other nonprofits and other unions that are really out there. now, that's not to say the republicans are doing nothing. it's not the reid machine versus elon musk and charlie kirk. that wouldn't be a fair fight. they are doing some things on the ground. they did enough in 2022 so there was a split verdict. cortez masto won, but john lombardo won for governor. my prediction is based on being

able to get their votes out. >> hey, ralston, it's heilemann. my first question to you is when you started looking at the early vote, a lot of people on the right seized on your analysis as a sign of like a national trend and also the trend in nevada. i think the take-away from looking about what you've said about the early vote now on election day is that early surge in republican early voting has been now counteracted to the point -- the story of this early vote was there was a lot of republican early vote that flooded in at the opening of it, but in the closing days democrats have caught up. my second question is how crucial the vote from the bellagio and caesars palace is going to be in putting harris over the top? >> let me answer the second question. when you talk about the strip, this goes all the way back. as you know, they have these caucuses on the strip.

the culinary gets its workers to the polls. i think that is going to happen today. but let's talk about where this republican early ballot lead is coming from. it's coming from rural nevada almost entirely. that is only going to end up being 10 to 12% of the vote. it is almost exhausted now. so the rest of the vote that's out there is from the urban areas. there's only two of them, clark county and washo county, which is reno. the democrats are behind in washo county, but they think they can catch up. if washo county is a wash and all those ballots come in in clark county based on the culinary union and reid and everything else, i think she can squeak by. but those have to come in, and we don't know that let. >> john, in states like georgia, pennsylvania, we've had governors talking about how they're going to expedite voting, that we're not going to

be waiting for a very long time. it seems like nevada counts votes day of and then they count one additional vote every day for the next three months. i'm wondering have there been any changes, any reforms by the state government or the local government to move that process up a bit more so nevada can put its complete tally out for people to see? >> yes. i would prefer us not to be the mockery on national television the way we were in the last cycle. the answer to your question, joe, is, yes, they have changed some things. if new secretary of state has allowed counties to start tabulating mail ballots early, almost as soon as they come in. so there should be earlier results. i'm not saying the election is going to be decided tonight, though. i think it's going to be very, very close, but we need to look

tonight -- first thing you should look for tonight, because 85% of the vote is going to be in already before election day. when those first votes pop up, look to see what kind of lead harris has in clark county, if it's very small, she's in trouble. if it's five, six, seven points, she has a chance to win the state. >> when those first votes go out, she needs 5, 6, 7% lead to win nevada? >> joe biden won clark county by nine points, and he won the state by 2 1/2 points. if you get down below, say, seven points overall in clark county, you're in trouble. if she's ahead by five or six points in the first tally, she has a chance to build that up through all of the ballots that are going to be counted today. >> ceo and editor of the "nevada independent" john ralston, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning.

>> john, very wise move turning off your mentions. good job. >> thank you. still ahead on "morning joe," we continue our election day coverage with one of the most influential democrats in congress, jim clyburn of south carolina is our guest next on "morning joe."

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it's our son, he is always up in our business. it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local.

oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again. you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people. and we will win, because when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for. and we have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics that has been driven by fear and division. we are done with that! we're done! we're exhausted with it! america is ready for a fresh

start, ready for a new way forward, where we see our fellow american not as an enemy, but as a neighbor. >> vice president kamala harris last night in philadelphia. and joining us now, democratic congressman jim clyburn of south carolina. he is national co-chair for the harris/walz campaign. great to have you on, sir. >> jim, always great to see you. tell us about north carolina. what are you looking at across the border to the north? >> well, thank you very much for having me. i was in north carolina last weekend, spent all day sunday there. i was about ten minutes away from where donald trump was for most of the day. i saw an energized state. i saw people very serious about this election. sure there is a lot of energy on the ground.

but i saw something else, joe, that i don't usually see. a very serious purpose. a seriousness of purpose. people are really engaged in what they think is necessary to preserve this democracy. and in talking with one -- a young man, i talked to him about an imperfect democracy versus a perfect autocracy, which would you prefer? we are in pursuit of a more perfect union. we are admitting that we are not a perfect country. and we'll never be. so, this is about do we have a democracy or an autocracy? and people are beginning to see that, they're beginning to feel it, and that's what i saw more than anything else. there was a certain feeling among the people that this is a

do or die election in many ways. >> congressman, there is an n naacp poll out, there was concern in the harris campaign in the democratic party that there was an interest in doald trump from young black men. what are you hearing in that regard? >> you may recall, i said on this network, more than once, i never believed those numbers. because i go to barbershops, whether it looks like i should or not, i go to beauty shops, i grew up in one, my mother was a beautician. i go to people in the faith community. i go to churches. i go to my masonic meetings. i go to my divine nine fraternity meetings. i never saw any indication that

20%, 25% of african american men would be voting for donald trump. i think that what we had was a certain amount of uncertainty among voters. there was so much doubt as to where we were as a country, that people were feeling a little disappointed in what they expected from the biden administration. they didn't seem to connect a lot of the accomplishments of joe biden with biden/harris. they saw stimulus checks that came with donald trump's name on them. they connected that to the majority in the house of representatives that passed that bill. they only saw the name on the

stimulus checks and that was used over and over again. but when people were able to get a grip on what we had done, with this administration, i saw them coming to the conclusions that we needed them to come to. >> all right. democratic congressman jim clyburn of south carolina with the final word this morning on "morning joe." thank you very much. >> thanks so much, jim. greatly appreciate it. final thoughts? >> perfect. >> molly, final thoughts? >> women, women, women, watch, women voters, a small amount of women voters over 65 who remember roe v. wade, those women could make the difference. >> what she said. >> this race is tied. we likely will not have a winner tonight. but as steve kornacki laid out for us, there are a few states and counties to watch that will give us a clear direction of where things are going. the harris campaign as we begin

this election day, they're cautiously optimistic, they feel good about where they are in the last hours. >> women and men will be the beacon of hope in this election because of what donald trump has done to women in america right now. >> willie? >> we laid out for years now the policy contrasts, everybody knows where they stand on the issues, now it is that feeling of turning the page. you watched donald trump for the last time in this campaign again last night, you watched that and you ask yourself, do you want to go back to that kind of political culture where everything is an insult or a threat or constant feeling of combat or put politics back in its place, which is a bunch of legislators working to make your lives better, republican and democrat, and not have to be so consumed by one man in the politics he brings. >> exactly. and this republic is not about one man or one woman. it's about we the people. and for too long it has been about one man center stage, one man saying he's going to be a

dictator on day one, one man saying he's going to shoot the chairman of, one man saying he's going to arrest his democratic opponents and do the military to do that, one man who said he's going to actually have liz cheney put before a firing squad. i could keep going on and on, talk about the threats. >> the vulgar -- >> and just, yeah, just the lack of decency. an evangelical leader in iowa said it best, the biggest problem donald trump is facing is there is not a mother or father or grandmother or grandfather or aunt or uncle who would want their child to grow up and act like him. so, so many stakes on the line. after the race, we got to bring america together. that does it for us this morning. ana cabrera and jose