gadi schwartz for us. regardless of what the electoral count is, every vote must be counted, regardless for whom it was cast. our special coverage continues. i will leave you some live spir pictures of demonstrations occurring across the country right now. i will leave you with d.c. and then times square. getting into a new home easier than ever. (brokenhearted guy) i thought you loved me. [brokenhearted guy sobs] (brad) apartments-dot-com. the most popular place to find a place. why?! ahhhh! incoming! ahhhahh! i'm saved! water tastes like, water. so we fixed it. mio. don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid

as you can see, gadi is in the middle of quite a crowd there. gadi, what's going on?reporter: yeah, and rachel, it's going to be kind of hard to see just because we're not turning on our lights, we don't want to be a distraction out here. there are a lot of people that are very -- or they have their emotions running extremely high. so any time these lights come on, you see people running towards the cameras and then they start screening and they've got bullhorns. here what's going on. it's very important that we show you what's happening outside of the maricopa elections center right now. you see that behind me, that's where they're counting those 400,000 ballots that are still outstanding, that could really change the course of the entire election in 2020. they've got some sheriff's officers up that are blocking the entrance of the election center. we're going to walk this way here. and one of the things that we've seen is, right now they're kneeling in prayer, but one of the things we've seen is them chanting very loudly "count that vote, count that vote," and then

rachel. >> gadi schwartz for us in maricopa county. gadi, great reporting. thank you very much.. when we come back, we're expecting, as gadi just said there, 70,000 votes out of arizona. you will want to see this when we come back. stay with us. it was in this small little village- in connemara. right! connemara it is! there's one gift the whole family can share this holiday season, their story. give the gift of discovery, with an ancestrydna kit. hi susan! honey? yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this new robitussin honey severe. the real honey you love... plus, the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? new robitussin honey severe. strong relief for your severe symptoms. strong relief ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> good evening. so glad to have you with us tonight. 9:00 p.m. in the east right now. night three of our ongoing election coverage. we don't know how long it's going to go on. neither do you. that's fine. five battleground states are now still too close to call. say it with me now. pennsylvania, georgia, north carolina, nevada, ariz

gadi schwartz there on the ground in tempe,, arizona. gadi, thank you.gadi's report there, president trump descended from air o "air force one." making his way there, the first of many campaign rallies on this election eve. we are going to listen in for just a bit, just a bit here as president trump takes the stage in fayetteville, north carolin., ♪ ♪ >> all right. looks like the president is google to work the crowd a bit before he starts. in california there's just one drive-through polling location for this election. jo ling kent is there for us in anaheim. jo, what do you see? >> hey, craig, welcome to the only drive-through polling place in all of california. the robbery they have put this entire operation together is because of the senior vote. i just got off the phone with the regime star, he said they set this up to make it covid safe for seniors and anyone who wants to vote. here is how it works. we've got our poll worker here. good morning. you get checked in, and you get your ballot. there's two different ways to vote. you can get your paper b

gadi, what's going on behind you? >> reporter: hey, brian. those ballots came out of this room right here. you can see there was a mad dash to get to that 7:00 mark, and then you've got things starting to settle down here. people are taking a break. then they're going to get back at it because again tomorrow morning, we've got another deadline. more of those coming here in arizona, there are still about 300,000 ballots outstanding. there is a crowd outside. they're a little more subdued right now. you can kind of hear them chanting but they've been keeping things pretty mellow. we had somebody go into the crowd and try to explain to a lot of people sharpie-gate. i'm not sure if you're familiar with sharpie-gate, but here in arizona it is something that has been gathering a lot of steam. it's a conspiracy theory that's now been debunked. it goes a little bit like this. some trump supporters believe they were given sharpies on purpose, and they were given these sharpies to invalidate their votes when they're filling out their ballots. but from

our gadi schwartz is there. gadi-y do some people they could flip the state? >> arizona has picked up about 700,000 new voters since 2016. and now the big question is whether these new voters will fall in line behind arizona's long history of volting for a republican for president or whether new young voters, latino voters and people moving here from other states could turn arizona blue. all of this playing out here in maricopa county. it's a county that gave president trump more votes than any other county back in 2016. and a sign of the times, people are voting over here. over here in this parking lot they're getting tested for covid-19. lester? >> kind of sums up the year. gadi, thanks very much. >>> let's go to georgia where there could be a big shift with black voters leading the way. nbc's blayne alexander is in atlanta. what are you seeing tonight? >> reporter: for the first time in nearly 30 years democrats believe they have a real shot at turning georgia blue and that's due in part to black voters turning out in large numbers. now, as for today's voti

gadi. >> reporter: morgan, we're seeing very similar stuff here in arizona.now. you're seeing this long line. it's important to note as you see people standing in line, arizona has also surpassed with the early vote alone in 20 to the entire vote during 2016. so there is quite a bit of excitement out here. the big question is, we've got 700,000 more registered voters than in 2016 in 2020. who are those registered voters? where are they coming from? are they new transplants, people that will fall in line with this state's long history of being in the republican corner? the truth is it's probably somewhere in the middle. we've seen a huge influx of people moving in from states like california. we've seen an explosion in the population of the young vote. in fact, maricopa county has 18% of young people living there. one of the largest percentages in the entire country. again, you can't discount the poll that president trump has here. maricopa county was the county that gave him the most votes in 2016. we'll season enough. craig, back to you. >> gadi schwartz for

here's gadi schwartz. >> reporter: in an unforgiving snowstorm on mt. rainier, a miraculous rescue. while snowshoeing, michael found unconscious after spending a freezing 16-degree night in 0 visibility but once air lifted to a hospital his heart stopped beating and 45 minutes of cpr still couldn't revive him. >> even when your heart stops we don't consider you not alive. especially if you're cold >> reporter: for two days a team of doctors refused do give up until michael finally opened his eyes. >> i can't express how grateful i am. i was very shocked i would think they would give up after maybe 15 or 20 minutes. but the fact that they didn't give up, you know, went that extra mile, just -- it made the difference between life and death. >> reporter: what doctors did during those two days is a medical marvel bypassing his heart and lungs to a machine outside of his body that kept his blood flowing with oxygen until they could revive him today michael doesn' remember much of what getting lost >> i was doing downhill but i do not recall falling. >> reporter: but he'll never forget th

nbc's gadi schwartz is there. gadi, what's the mood like now? i presume that the crowd has not made peace with the idea that mathematically joe biden appears to have won this race. they are going to fight on. >> reporter: yeah, they haven't made peace with that, but they have been out here. it's a very subdued crowd here. we have some people that have been out here for eight hours. earlier the crowds were a lot bigger. but what's going on over here is the -- this is the maricopa county elections center. so people have been gathering here in the parking lot of the maricopa elections center. throughout the night, every single night for the last five nights, and just around the corner over here where you can't see them, there are two different deputies. and they are standing guard. this is where those votes are being counted. you've got people out there now following us. let me ask them real quick. hey, i'm going to ask you guys real fast, do you guys accept the vice-president elect joe biden? >> do -- >> reporter: do you think joe biden won the el

i want to head back to gadi schwartz in maricopa county with the latest.on there. >> reporter: stephanie, t minus six minutes now. i believe the maricopa county -- the election center is about to release another batch of votes. what we're told is this batch is going to have about 60,000 votes, the votes they counted overnight. we've seen them releasing batches of about -- a couple more of those to go. it could be until this weekend when we have a definite idea of how maricopa county is going to vote, about 60% of the population of arizona. however, maricopa county goes, the rest of the state will follow. here is the context of those numbers in the last couple days. we saw biden with a sizable lead right after the election. then yesterday, his lead had shrunk to about 60,000 votes. overnight we saw president trump closing the gap, catching up a little bit. he's still about 45,000 votes down. so he needs to return at a clip of about six votes for every ten to overtake joe biden. we just don't know how that's going to go. it's very, very close here. it's come

lester >> gadi schwartz, thank you very much. >>> as the election drama plays out, the u.s. is hitting coronavirus records, over 120,000 new cases for the second day in a row. with the holidays approaching officials have a new warning tonight about indoor gatherings here's miguel almaguer. >> reporter: as new covid cases skyrocket well beyond the 100,000 mark for a third straight day, hospitalizations in new mexico are up 260% nurse kelly soza has comforted her patients as they slip away in isolation. >> he had a huge family and none of them were able to be here. >> reporter: with nearly every region breaking records for infections and fatalities, the most dire surge in cases may be yet to come a new cdc report he released today said restrictions like mask mandates and curfews have led to a reduction in transmission but many refuse to follow the guidelines as the holidays approach, officials warn extended families to limit or cancel indoor gatherings, where a simple sneeze can quickly spread the virus at the dinner table hanging like a cloud for hours. the particles are enou

gadi schwartz, last night, it was heated out there. how's it going today >> reporter: good evening, lester. right now they're counting the ballots inside that building over there but out in front there's a protest that is growing with people angry saying they think that this election is being stolen from the president even though there's no evidence from that still it is making for a tense situation for the second night in a row. last night poll workers had to be escorted to their cars by police and inside trying to tabulate the 275,000 ballots. the last two batch that is narrowed the margin trump gained on biden's lead of less than 68,000 votes. maricopa count poll workers say they'll continue to count despite protests they hope to have results by the weekend. lester >> gadi schwartz, thank you. >>> in just 60 seconds, the soberin new milestone in the covid pandemic as some hospitals near capacity and an e.r. doctor makes a plea to the public >>> with the country focused on the election an unprecedented surge of covid cases. topping 1

gadi schwartz where the counting is going on in arizona.been a better time to bring in the author and presidential historian michael beschloss. let's just take a second. that was a moment in time from gadi schwartz as he put it the birth of a conspiracy theory. and our society right now, you've seen the vote breakdown, we are primed for this. this is the perfect storm, the collision of social media, electronics, overseas intervention, our foreign adversaries love fomenting this and seeing this cut loose in our society. so what era, exactly, are we on the cusp of? >> we're on the cusp i hope of an era that is like most of american history and that is as you well know, brian, you read history so fervently, throughout american history at various times there have been conspiracy theories that have been floated to explain all sorts of changes that some people don't like. the arrival of immigrants before the civil war, conspiracy by certain groups to get us into world war ii, you could do it all the way through the time of joe mccarthy in the 195

gadi, what can you tell us? >> reporter: nicolle, i can't describe what it's like listening to you guys and then listening to the crowd behind me. everybody needs to have kornacki in their ear tabulating. so as soon as you guys doing that, i started refreshing the secretary of state's website. i saw the numbers hit the secretary of state's website from maricopa county, and right before that happened, we also saw another jump from some other counties. we don't know where they were coming in, but it looks like we've got a total of about 29,000 votes. so what that means is that lead that we saw joe biden have over president trump has shrank a little bit more. it's down to about 29,000. remember, a couple of days ago it was at 69,000. now it's down to about 29,000. there is still a lot of vote counting to do. here in maricopa county, we understand that there's about 70,000 early votes that they want to tabulate. then after that, they've got to get to the provisional ballots, which is another 20,000. so we're looking

first, nbc's gadi schwartz in phoenix for us. gadi, morning. >> reporter: hey, good morning, guys.ous protesters, some of them carrying tactical rifles, gathered outside the maricopa county election center, chanting, "count that vote" and "we love trump," claiming the state was being stolen from president trump before the final batches of mail-in votes could be counted. we saw election workers coming off of long shifts having to be escorted to their cars by sheriff's deputies. the emotions running extremely high after we saw a strong biden lead early on in the returns. as of this morning, there are too many outstanding votes to call that race. biden is still in the lead, but trump is slightly closing that gap. it looks like the president needs about six out of every ten of the ballots to come back in his favor for him to catch up. we are hoping to have more returns today and here in maricopa county, we are talking about 275,000 more ballots to be count and this is home of phoenix, and about 60% of arizona's population. guys, back to you. >> gadi schwartz, thank you. >> that sets th

a hiker lost in blinding snow in freezing conditions on mount rain neier near seattle gadi schwartz onutting-edge treatment that gave doctors enough time to save his life. >> reporter: in and unforgiving snowstorm on mount rainier spending a freezing 16-degree night in zero visibility once airlifted to a hospital his heart stopped beating and 45 minutes of cpr couldn't rerive him. >> eve when your heart stops we don't consider you not alive especially if it's cold. >> reporter: and refused to give up until michael finally opened his eyes. >> i can't express how grateful i am very shocked i would think they would give up after maybe 15 or 20 minutes. but the fact that they didn't give up, went that extra mile just -- it made the difference between life and death. >> reporter: what doctors did during those two days is a medical marvel bypassing his heart and lungs to a machine outside of his body keeping his blood flowing with oxygen until we to revive him today michael doesn't remember how he got lost. >> i was going downhill but do not recall falling. >> reporter: he'll never forget th

gadi, we're happy you are on top of it.or bringing us that interview with an extraordinary, first-time voter. we appreciate that. >>> reaction has also been pouring in from leaders around the world, as you may have noted today. british prime minister boris johnson was one of many to congratulate biden and harris. adding, quote, the u.s. is our most important ally and i look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security. back in 2017, the german news magazine "der spiegel" published a cover. you may recall, president trump holding a severed head from the statue of liberty. well, today's shows joe biden with a mask, fixing lady liberty, instead. for more on the reaction from outside the united states, we are so fortunate to be joined by our chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. richard, i will say in front of the entire audience via satellite, you wrote me the most thoughtful note today when results became clear. and all i can ask is that you share the contents o

gadi?yeah, brian, so, that's the parking lot we've been spending so much time on and for the first time today, we're seeing something happening here on the other side of the street. i want to show you, these are people that are celebrating biden's win. they've come out and they've been here and i wanted to take some time, because if you just look at these faces, a lot of these faces are young faces here in arizona, gen z turned out in a big way. you mind if i ask you some questions? all right, cool. i want to know, this is the first time you guys voted. >> yeah. >> why did you vote? >> ah, for my mom, especially, because she has tps, she's from el salvador and i know trump is trying to get rid of that, it expires in january and we're hoping that biden can find a solution so that those immigrants who are under that status can have protection here in the united states. >> were you -- so, you were worried she might be deported? >> yeah. >> yeah. and she's a big financial in our household. >> h

>> gadi schwartz live in phoenix. our team of road warriors covering every angle along with steve at the big board. we'll keep everybody up and around over the next 60 minutes. we look ahead to the news conference from georgia's secretary of state, looking at the clock set to happen in ten minutes or so, we'll bring that to you live for an update on the status of votes being counted in his state, all of it happening against the backdrop of the u.s. hitting another all-time high for daily confirmed coronavirus cases. remember, the pandemic a huge reason why we're seeing so many mail-in ballots this election. we'll have the details. >>> up next, pennsylvania, two states president trump, one of multiple states the president is filing losses to stop the vote count and take other measures. we'll talk to p.a.'s attorney general live. tired of overpaying for your prescriptions? try optum perks. it's a new way to save up to 80%. and everyone can do it. it's from optum, a health care company that's trusted by millions of peopl

before we go to correspondent gadi schwartz, what i understand is because the count is still going on you're in the middle of a trump rally. is that correct? >> reporter: that's right. there's a trump rally here in the parking lot. a big and small picture. big picture, you have got hundreds of people earlier at the state capitol and here protesting the way the vote is going. they are in favor of the president and then i want to show you a little picture here because this is something going on at the corner of this protest. you have got this woman here, she is holding a sign saying make america gay again and then a woman with a keep america great hat and been in conversation for quite sometime. it seems like you have found some things to agree on. right? >> yeah. she is so sweet. we are having a good time. >> she is super nice. >> we are just here, we are all americans. i respect her. >> right? >> yes. >> i respect her opinion. she is respecting my opinion. >> we have differences, more alike -- policies accomplished than like our policy differentials and i think there's way too much di

. >> gadi, thank you very much. >> let's take a pause. >> you know what time it is? it's roker time. >> thank god. >> you might not be happy about this either, it's tropical storm ada. it's 2020! get off my back! >> really? >> yes. moving west at 8 miles per hour, this is tied for the strongest hurricane of the season, third strongest november hurricane on record, it works its way through guatemala and now this weekend could become theta. look at the spaghetti plots right now. it's all over the map but it looks like we'll be worrying about this into wednesday. it will be interesting to see whether the election is resolved before this is. we're going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. >>> good morning. i'm meteorologist kari hall. as we take a look at our high temperatures for today, expect it to reach into the upper 70s for today and more of the same tomorrow. big changes ahead heading into friday. much cooler air coming in. highs in the upper 50s. 50s for highs for the inland valleys throughout the weekend. more clouds and some off and o

. >> gadi schwartz is in phoenix, arizona. the aforementioned maricopa county where the action is tonight. gadi, what are you hearing, what are you seeing? >> reporter: savannah, a while ago we saw a remarkable scene. ground game, strong ground game during the middle of a pandemic. right now we're at a grassroots kind of watch party. you can see this zoom screen behind me. just a little while ago we saw hundreds of cars of these organizers and these -- these latino-based community groups coming together, dropping off their canvassing gear then going home and joining this virtual dance party to watch some of those returns come in. they have been working here on the ground in arizona for over a decade now. in fact, she was just telling me, the one in the black right here, she started at the age of 12 years old. marching against joe arpaio. and she has been working just along with a lot of the other people here to try to vote donald trump out of office. they're optimistic because they say since 2016 the state of arizona has chang

nbc's gadi schwartz is there. assume the crowd has not made peace with the idea that mathematically joe biden has won this race. >> reporter: yeah. they haven't made peace with that, but they have been out here. it's a very subdued crowd here. we have some people that have been out here for eight hours. earlier the crowds were a lot bigger. what's going on over here, this is the maricopa county election center. people have been gathering here in the parking lot of the maricopa county election center every single night for the last five nights. just around the corner here there are two different deputies standing guard. this is where those votes are being counted. you've got people that are now following us. let me just ask them real quick. do you guys accept the vice president-elect joe biden? do you think that joe biden won the election? >> no, i do not. >> reporter: i'll be right back. i'm going to come talk to you in just a second. so you have a lot of people out here refusing to accept that joe biden accepted

>> reporter: gathered protests, our colleague gadi schwartz was out there for part of it.bout 100 protesters chanting "where are the votes." for anybody that has covered arizona elections here, this is part of the process. the votes are coming. maricopa county, exactly where those protesters were yesterday, they released about another 150,000 ballots. they're methodically going through this process. i've been in the county recorder's office time and time again to watch the process unfold, where folks from both political parties are inside, verifying every signature on every mail-in ballot and ultimately tabulating the votes. they go in the hard drive and that's when you see the votes posted online. that's what we saw last night. the question, where does this race go from here? there's about 400,000 outstanding ballots here in the state of arizona. you see joe biden's lead now down to just 69,000 votes. steve just laid it out there, the number we have been looking at is 60%. before last night there was about 550,000 outstanding votes. the number donald trump was going to ha

but joe biden is leading there and nbc's gadi schwartz is in scottsdale. we got some new results overnight. where do things stand now? >> good morning, steph. we're expecting more ballots to be counted today. also probably expecting to see more protests at the maricopa county elections center. a crowd of about 300 gathered in front of those steps yelling at election officials chanting, we love trump and count those votes. a lot of them were extremely angry saying they thought the election was being stolen from the president even though there are still possibly days away from that count finally being finished. a lot of frustration coming from what appeared to be that early sizable biden lead here in arizona with those returns that we've seen. so far we understand there are still about 270,000 ballots here in maricopa county alone that still need to be counted. and at last count, it looks like trump needs to win about 6 out of every 10 of those ballots to overtake biden. so the trump campaign says that they think they can do that. they think when this is all

gadi schwartz has been making a camp at the maricopa election headquarters in phoenix for the last couple of nights and we talked to the secretary of state last night, and she said we will be doing an all-nighter of vote counting, and are they on track to get the votes from them in the next hour? >> well, we had an official to say that you can expect that in half an hour, and you can expect about 60,000 votes. those are the ballots they were working on, and 60,000 last night and we saw batches of 60,000 to 70,000, and so when they release the batches, that is about the size. we don't know how is it going the go, and as chuck was talking about, president trump is catching up with joe biden, and so after the early vote, and after election day, joe biden was in a sizable lead, and that has shrunk, and 69,000, and then ahead, and today, it is 48,000, and slowly but surely, we are seeing the president catch up. it is just whether or not the next 300,000 ballots go his way, and he needs to come in at a clip of six voters to ten voters coming in with provisional ballots for president trump to ma