well we did hear from again present from campaign manager bill stepien reinforcing what the president said overnight saying that his campaign will move ahead with efforts to make sure that legally cast votes are counted that there are no illegally cast votes and this is something we've heard from president trump over the entirety of the campaign here is that he's been casting doubt upon mail in ballots now we heard him speaking last night saying he would take this to the supreme court but we should say that if these ballots were cast lawfully and are simply being counted it really isn't clear that the president would have any grounds on which he could challenge them there were a lot of challenges ahead of the election over mail and ballots up in states like pennsylvania when canberra rive how can they be gathered and so on so we could see similar litigation on the state level over these very tight results again in those key battleground states like pennsylvania and wisconsin and perhaps others as well i want to ask you we've talked about this many times and how the the polls the polls

he and mike pence more return to their jobs in the white house just to point out the fact that bill stepien is saying that democrats are lying cheating and stealing across the country they didn't offer any specifics of what was going on they were also asked about donald trump's tweet when he said stop the counting jason miller said that's all about don't count illegal ballots well illegal ballots do tend to be counted don't seem to be suggesting that he wanted all voting stopped at the moment that 2nd true the message for the trump campaign because they want to continue counting the votes in nevada but they want to store some of the counting that is going on particularly in michigan in pencil. michigan because they're behind the at the moment pennsylvania because they're concerned that although the hold a small lead that as they start to count the ballots that were mailed in particularly democratic strong areas that they will fall behind in what is a very key state so it's interesting that the trump campaign is being so forceful about this that they're being pretty angry about this as well

doesn't win pennsylvania no i had to that what the campaigns have been seeing with the head from bill stepien who is the campaign manager for donald trump he says that he believes that wisconsin is moving in to recount territory that would mean the campaigns trigger one of the recounts there because they think it's too close they could ask for a recount in certain counties there's always the possibility when people start talking about recurrence that that ends up in court so stick a pin in that one as well and he's also suggesting that they're going to win in pennsylvania and they're going to win in arizona he's predicting that having looked at all the vote tallies in the counties that will be 840000 victory in pennsylvania and the 13000 vote victory soon and at the moment it's trending towards joe biden so that would be a surprise perhaps but certainly a big victory for door if we did that now we're waiting on the results as you know from the 3 big states in the midwest which of pennsylvania wisconsin and michigan if joe biden wins michigan and wisconsin added to the brassica and they also p

which he could challenge of these ballots still president trumps campaign manager i mentioned bill stepien earlier she reinforced the president's message again today saying they will move ahead with adverts to make sure that no illegal votes are counted again casting doubt over these votes and print off you know we also know this has been going on for months now as legal experts here say that even before this election started it was the most litigated election ever i mean there have been hundreds of court cases over mail in ballots over when you can mail your ballot when it can be received and that's that's been something we've been seeing for months so perhaps not much of a surprise that we're seeing this continue on after election day you know these 1000000 ballots have been used for a very long time in the united states this election we've seen it done proceeded a number of these posed to balance talk to me about how bad it has cool implicated matters in this election. i mean bret it's been massively complicated for so many states so around 100000000 people cast their ballots early and

well bill stepien who is this campaign manager on that call the last couple of hours said that donald trump is alive and well so even though we haven't seen him for the last 24 hours or so and that is the news from his campaign will he leave the white house well of course the campaign is insisting that he won't have to do that he's got another 4 years ahead in voting in pennsylvania that they're going to win out as soon as that nevada is spotted then accuse can stand is an absolute banker and so they will have more than enough force to put them over the top get the $270.00 electoral college votes in fact donald trump just a couple of days ago was predicting he get more than the 360 that he got 4 years ago will he leave the white house if joe biden actually becomes president well he really doesn't have an option there is a plan in place that are laws in place that would suggest that he has to leave he might make the transition difficult but there are legal restrictions on all that he can do in fact it is an act of congress that tells his team exactly what they need to do before they ha

we just were actually on a campaign call with the campaign manager bill stepien and they're even declaring themselves, the trump campaign is, the winner in pennsylvania. here was stepien when we heard from him within the past hour here. watch? >> we have high degree of confidence in maintaining our margin of victory. in fact, we are declaring a victory in pennsylvania. this is not based on gut or spiel. this is based on math. we feel, very, very positive, that the president an vice president will again deliver a victory in pennsylvania. reporter: move on over to michigan now, the trump campaign also filed a lawsuit there to halt the ballot counting process in that state. they said, in a statement, in part quote, president trump's campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe opening of ballots and counting process as guaranteed by michigan law. the trump campaign also says, connell, will seek a recount in wisconsin, which fox projected today that joe biden has won. wisconsin in that state they allow for a recount if the vote total is under

but we are learning that the campaign manager, bill stepien, has told supporters, allies, and donors,case they are needed for protest rallies and demonstrations, and they continue to raise a lot of money for what they're calling an election legal defense fund, some of which, we should point out, is apportioned, actually, to general debt that the campaign has accrued. so, a two-fold strategy there, kasie. >> for sure. it seems like the paths are quickly narrowing, but of course, we don't know what president trump himself is going to do in the next coming days and weeks. nbc's mike memoli, monica alba, thank you both for getting up early with us after a marathon week of coverage. i really appreciate it. >>> still ahead here, we've got the best moments from "saturday night live's" post-election show. >>> plus, yay! man's best friend is set to roam the white house grounds once again. those details, coming up next in "the cooler." "way too early" back in just a moment. ooler. "way too early" back in just a moment (harold) twelve hundred strings of lights. (betsy) quarter mile of tinsel. (h

well the president's campaign manager bill stepien he's been speaking to media here today as well and he reinforced the president's message that the campaign would forge ahead with legal efforts to make sure that legally cast votes are counted not illegally cast votes but this claim from the president that he would take this to the supreme court while these are legally cast ballots we're talking about it is not clear that the president would have any grounds on which he could challenge these ballots that being said we could see disputes in some of these key battleground states like pennsylvania and wisconsin where there have been a record number of mail and ballots we could see disputes over how those ballots are counted and when so we'll just have to wait and see how the coming hours play out and whether it does indeed lead to a legal dispute the figure that seems to me so it's going to washington. well here in europe leaders have been reluctant to say much about the election until they know what sort of administration they're going to be dealing with in washington over the next 4 ye

well bill stepien says that they're convinced that the president has a clear path to 270 electoral college votes and they've even given as the numbers now they've broken it down county by county but essentially boils down to this the thing that they will win pennsylvania by about 40000 votes and they will win 530000 votes that would be enough given the also won florida and ohio to put them over the top and give them 270 electoral college votes and of course 4 more years of being president for donald trump now what is interesting is that build stepien who is the campaign manager he was parachuted in after they got rid of. it before they get rid of byrd pascali who was the campaign manager. here saying that the president not only believes that he can win the election they want to make sure that every single legally cast ballot is counted now that's certainly a different tone from what we heard from the president in the of wednesday morning when he was talking as jamal was seeing about stopping palling no no one was ever talking about stopping voting voting was over by that stage we think he

of course we've heard from bill stepien who is his campaign manager who said in the last couple of hours the donald trump is alive and well we haven't seen him for a couple of days but he has been tweeting as we know including a tweet that said stop the vote which is a bit odd stop counting the vote it's weird that he's saying that because of course he wants them to stop counting in pennsylvania but continue counting in arizona where he's behind joe biden it's a very odd message the question is what will he do if he loses will there be a smooth transition of power well there's actually a law in place that says his administration has got to work with the incoming administration to make sure that that's exactly what happens how will he respond well you will look at the way he's been over the last 4 years people for example said that when he went to the white house he would become much more presidential not the sort of thing that he actually did he said that he would stop tweeting when he realized it was causing a few problems because then he wanted to appeal to more members of the american

about 48 percent with 94 percent of the votes coming in at this point now it's very interesting bill stepien campaign manager has been crunching the numbers and all along he has said that the president has about 3 pathways to $270.00 electoral votes north carolina is the only state that is on each one of those pathways so an absolutely critical state for the republicans which is why the the blue wall the so-called midwest blue wall is going to be absolutely critical tonight for joe biden let's take a look at the next graphic and of course i'm talking about michigan wisconsin and pennsylvania sure the numbers in michigan at this hour joe biden has about 45 point one percent of the vote donald trump leading with 53.3 percent were 72 percent of the votes counted joe biden thought he could do well in this state because all the polls were indicating that trump was underperforming with some of the working class voters in that town but that remains to be seen he said look at the next graphic the state of wisconsin of course one of the 3 states that donald trump was able to win back in 2016 by a raz

voting again produced no documentation to back that up so what's donald trump been doing well bill stepien his campaign manager says he is alive and well he's been tweeting out a couple of times today he said that he wanted to stop the vote that's a mixed message they want to stop counting the votes in places such as pennsylvania and michigan you can't do michigan anymore but they want to continue counting in arizona because donald trump is that behind it joe biden there so they need the votes to try and overhaul what the democratic candidate has already stocked up for donald trump he's apparently watching the results consulting with allies and wondering whether or not his time in the white house is coming to a close thank you very much indeed in the fresh air bringing us up to date from washington d.c. i want to go over to jamal sile he's live in wilmington delaware which is of course joe biden's home state where we're hearing from alan about the campaigns attempts to bring litigation in some of these states what's been the reaction from the democrats to these accusations of voting irregu

the campaign manager, bill stepien, announcing the trump campaign has filed a lawsuits in the state of mish saying president trump's campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to brvg the opening of ballots in the counting process, as guaranteed by michigan law, we have filed suit today in the michigan court of claims to halt counting. >> this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. ( applause ) this is a major fraud on our nation. we want the law to be used in a proper manner. so we will be going to the u.s. supreme court. we want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list, okay? ( applause ) it is a very sad-- it's a very sad moment. to me, this is a very sad moment. and we will win this. as far as i am concerned, we already have won it. ( applause ) >> trevor: wow. i know everyone was expecting itux but still can we just tack a moment to admit, it is insane that an

bill stepien, campaign manager. jason miller, senior adviser. put aside that they say they won pennsylvania and they did not. they say that they were going to win nevada by 5,500 votes. arizona. the call from fox was wrong. were they -- was this another instance of, for example, audience of one for the president? or was there really a rosy picture, that just was wrong? do we have any way to know if they were just lying to everybody? or they just got it wrong? pennsylvania aside. >> we were hearing, consistently, internally, from the trump campaign and folks close to the trump campaign, that they thought that the numbers were much closer. they -- we were hearing different things in the beginning of the night, than emerged over a couple of days. and i think we've seen, on both sides of the aisle, and not on the aisle but just media polling, how complicated it is for a pandemic and how complicated it is to capture trump voters as part of a sample. but i think in other cases, there wasn't a blue wave, we know that but there was this red-mirage effec

voters today so that's what we heard from joe biden's team now president trump's campaign manager bill stepien has also been speaking to reporters on a conference call and he has said that the president's campaign so he's reinforcing what we heard from the president overnight said that the campaign would fortune had with legal efforts to make sure that legally cast votes are counted that there are no illegally cast votes so that's a messaging we're hearing from both sides right now phil as so much is still in flux 6 states are still too close to call they're still counting in most of these states they are pennsylvania wisconsin michigan georgia arizona and nevada these are states we knew would be very close where it would take time to come ballots so it's not unusual that we don't have a definitive winner yet but what is added pressure of course as we heard is that the president prematurely claim victory as many feared he would do if the results were to be really close as it is so when do we expect to have an idea of the final electoral college tally. it's too soon to say phil i mean the state

reporting that president trump met with top advisers, including jared kushner and campaign manager bill stepien to discuss the path forward. but whatever trump is saying behind closed doors, he's outwardly continuing his verbal assault on the results of the election. and while we may be used to this kind of behavior from this president, one thing bears repeating. this is not normal. lies and attempts to delegitimize an election in the minds of voters by this president and his enablers in congress, his republican enablers in congress, are at best doing massive damage to our democratic process. at worse, they are signs of something far more sinister. many stories have been written about republican officials simply humoring the president and that this will all eventually be resolved, and that may very well be true. but as one of our nation's foremost scholars on authoritarianism warns today, we should be very careful about ignoring the president's claims and letting them spread unabated. famed author and yale professor timothy snyder writes in "the boston globe" today that, quote, trump's big elec

bill stepien the campaign manager had a staff meeting this morning which he said we're still in the fight acknowledged what he called amateur hour in part of the efforts by the campaign, including the circulation of fake photo shopped headlines from newspapers in the bush/gore fight a long time ago. so how long can the trump campaign and the trump white house go on before they are worn down by reality we don't know the answer. but one date to watch is november 15th. that's when the paychecks run out for the trump campaign staff and that potentially is where some of the steam might come out of the effort, john. >> excellent point to make. the staffers work hard in this campaign so we wish them the best. they deserve the right to know, is it time to move on? what should they be doing? john harwood, appreciate that reporting there. let's continue the conversation. the president's unare proven claims of election fraud are a little different this time. in 2016 when he lost the popular vote he said that was because some 6 million undocumented immigrants illegally cast ballots for hillary clinto

much different response from people around the president, including his own campaign manager, bill stepien, who held an all staff meeting at their headquarters outside washington this morning i'm told where he told staff we're still in this fight, don't mistake the fact there's not been progress for the idea that we are giving up the fight. we're going to move forward with this. it raises questions of how long can they walk a balance beam of privately people believe it is time for the president to concede the election, publicly his aides are still encouraging him and baseless claims about voter fraud, pushing that, continuing to say they're going to file lawsuits and dispute the outcome. that comes as joe biden is moving ahead with planning his transition as we can tell from the covid task force meeting he held and briefed us on. it is a mixture, division inside the white house and the president's inner circle of what they're going to do next. basically they're all waiting on the president to come to terms with what's happening. >> jonathan, you know this well, i covered a lot of elections

fox was told for example, a all hands meeting across the river in virginia, campaign manager bill stepien of the trump campaign said the following about president trump, quoting, he is still in this fight. there is a process. have patience. stepien said and his staff today. communications director tim murtagh, said they even believe there is a pathway to victory at this point. watch here. >> we have high confidence that as the president pursues his lines of legal recourse, including the recounts in georgia and wisconsin, at least, we do feel like there is a runaway for the president to win this and win re-election. reporter: mentioned there wisconsin and georgia. wisconsin, joe biden up there by 20,000 votes. the former republican governor of that state scott walker noted in 2011 and 2016 when there were recounts there the tallies swung by a few hundred, yet alone being up there by 20,000 votes. georgia, the other state, connell, mentioned by the trump campaign, joe biden was last check up 10,000 votes. compare that to florida when you're talking about five or 600 votes. a lot different n

listen here to the campaign manager bill stepien from earlier this afternoon talking about the president and his chances. listen. >> he is alive and he is well. we believe, he believes and we believe that if we count all legally-cast ballots the president will win. we are confident in that fact. we are confident in our pathway to 270. we're confident in our math to get us there. reporter: as the vote counting still continues in several crucial states, president trump tweeted out the following earlier this morning, saying quote, stop the count. the trump campaign connell, was asked, what exactly us did the president mean by that? >> what we should not be doing is treating ballots that are coming in late with no postmarks, or ballots that are magically being found under very questionable circumstances, those should all be set aside and dealt with separately. reporter: you mentioned lawsuits, potential litigation. add nevada to the list where the trump campaign will file lawsuits. connell, give you a quick look right now. phoenix, arizona, there is a trump campaign event that is about to ta

that being said, though, when you hear bill stepien saying words like recount, wisconsin is one of thoselaces that you can request that if it's as close as it is right now, below one point margin between these two candidates. what it means is that the biden folks can do this with wisconsin, it's in their formula, but frankly, it may be better for them if they can do it without it because we know that that's one of the states that's going to go down a legal rabbit hole pretty quickly. >> ali and carol, thank you both. we have a lot more right after this. my nunormal: fewer asthma attacks. less oral steroids. taking my treatment at home. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about

we heard from campaign manager bill stepien held an all staff call and meeting at virginia headquarters in the last hour or so trying to tell staffers there, who i have to tell you i've been in touch with and are quite deflated to keep hope alive. there's a shred of possibility in certain states where the margin is clear that joe biden is leading the president, that could shrink, could there possibly be anything that will actually alter the outcome, i'm told that's not the case. this is more about public messaging strategy and political one to show the president, as he is outgoing in 70 days, isn't going out without a fight. that's why the campaign now is talking about potentially having recount rallies that would feature more of the president's top surrogates, his sons, other family members potentially without him necessarily being there, though they are leaving the door open to that possibility. i'm told he also wants to thank his supporters in some way and return to the trail, so to speak, in that capacity before january 20th. it also comes as you mentioned coronavirus which hangs ov

all according to bill stepien who is his campaign manager he told is that donald trump is alive and well he's been tweeting out in the last few hours he's been saying stop the count of course he's only saying that in places where he is ahead he's not talking about don't know where he's behind and he needs the killing to keep going there's talk that the campaign may go to court yet again but of course if you go to a judge in one place you're saying stop the another saying keep it going that's not going to work very well as for donald trump we are told that he's currently speaking to allies he's watching very closely he obviously is concerned and we know that having spoken to a few people in the donald trump or but that he may well put up a fight before he leaves the white house but there are those who are suggesting that he should go with some grace and a little bit of class because they are talking about the possibility that in 4 years time donald trump will run for the presidency again he would be $78.00 just a year older than joe biden is at the moment but they believe that he could ma

president trump, meanwhile, met with some of his top advisers yesterday, including campaign manager bill stepien and son-in-law jared kushner, to discuss a path forward after last week's election. multiple people familiar with the president's thinking say there's a growing expectation among the president's advisers that he'll never concede he lost the election, even after the votes are certified. one top aide said, quote, do not expect him to concede. more likely, the aide said, quote, he'll say something like, we can't trust the results, but i'm not contesting them. according to the "associated press," trump's moods have vacillated over recent days. at times, he is seethed with anger, fuming that he lost to a candidate he doesn't respect and believing that the media, including what he views as typically friendly fox news, worked against him. but the "ap" notes that the aides say the president has been calmer than his tweets suggest, showing greater understanding of his predicament and believing that he needs to keep fighting almost as a performance, as a show to the 70 million people who voted

in any case, bill stepien now says the trump campaign is going to challenge the results, with about a0-vote advantage for joe biden. >> yeah, andrea, the democrats, those on the biden campaign, believe quite confidently they have wisconsin in hand at this hour. but the trump campaign is warning of lawsuits, they're warning of the possibility of a recount, trying to challenge that vote count, that vote total, in particular looking at the mail-in ballots which we know to be legal ballots. but you're going to hear arguments from the trump campaign that somehow those are improperly counted or should not be counted or are illegal because they came by mail even though that's part of the legal process as we've all been discussing today. and so look for legal skirmishes there. but it's important to keep in mind that the biden campaign, of those three midwestern states, wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, as of this hour, they feel quite confident about wisconsin and think the vote totals are very much in biden's favor. >> and yamiche, the nbc news exit poll shows that support for biden reached

trump world has been flashing yellow about arizona since bill stepien took over from the other guy.gnosis from the new political regime in trump world was that there were three things working against donald trump in arizona. one was demographic changes. the other was a five-year-long war against john mccain, who was very popular in arizona. and the third was the impact of the trump really hard-line arpaio immigration policy in a state that was trending in a different direction and sort of started as a john mccain republican state. the third orbit that i've heard from tonight is mccain's former senate staff world, and they said to watch the independent vote and the way that comes in. there's a lot of independent vote there that they think should come in for joe biden. so as we watch arizona, that's sort of the view from all three camps. i'll add this about the recounts. i just hung up with a trump adviser who says that these legal efforts do not really have the imprimatur of the late warren christopher and the james baker sort of statesmen arriving on the ground in florida the mornin

i'm told by campaign aides that bill stepien, the campaign manager, just held an all-staff meeting tatginat the virgin headquarters, where the message was, we are still in this and stay in the fight. trying to boost corral for campaign aides who are quite deflated, seeing a very, very narrow path, if any, evaporating over the weekend when we did project that former vice president joe biden will now be the president-elect. but they feel that if they maintain the course with pursuing some of these legal options, they may be able to at least raise the idea that the president is not going out without a fight. speaking of the president, we haven't seen him publicly, in four days, except for on the golf course where he spent hours and hours this weekend in virginia. so the question becomes, where do we see him next? could it be that he'd go to the road and do an event, for example, in georgia, potentially if a recount takes place there, in wisconsin, arizona, pennsylvania? i'm told all of those discussions are happening behind the scenes. for now, the campaign is really running out of time.

well we did hear president campaign manager bill stepien speaking a little bit earlier to reporters today and here we enforced what the president said in that speech overnight that they would forge ahead with the legal efforts to make sure that legally cast votes are counted not not legally cast votes are counted and president trump has claimed that he would take this to the supreme court that but we have to say feel that if these are lawfully cast ballots we're talking about it's not clear what grounds he could challenge them on so there is a lot up in the air and a lot of americans around the world as well people are wondering what might happen if this dispute continues so we took a closer look. donald trump versus joe biden both were determined to win the election but neither of them has emerged as a clear winner the u.s. could be in for days even weeks of uncertainty the record number of ballots sent by mail will now become the focus of a bitter fight. absentee ballots made it easier for americans to vote and that the coded $1000.00 pandemic but absentee ballots are also more likely t

president's campaign manager, bill stepien posted this out, posted a long thread going state by state. let me sum it up in one state, president trump is ahead where he was in 2016 by a very key measure. the mesh sure that actually matters. votes cast, votes left to be cast. you've seen reports of democrats being nervous around well they should be. that is the read heading into the final day. it all unfolds tomorrow, connell. back to you. connell: on that point of votes left to be cast, that is what they need. they need a big in-person turnout here especially in pennsylvania if they want to make up for the -- reporter: i was going. connell: go ahead. blake, thank you, my friend. blake burman back at the white house on the north lawn. let's flip over to the biden campaign. they obviously know all of this as well. the democratic nominee approaching the finish line with stops here in pennsylvania. he has been in ohio as well. hillary vaughn is live in pittsburgh with the latest on mr. biden. hillary? reporter: hi, connell. joe biden's campaign for white a while is openly warning that they

. >>> meanwhile, president trump's campaign manager, bill stepien, issued a statement on the race ing in part, "the president is well within the threshold to request a recount and will immediately do so." they're going to have to pay for that themselves. joe biden narrowly won wisconsin yesterday, but according to state law, a candidate is allowed to call for a recount if the margin of victory is one percentage point or less. the request also has to be made within the window between when all county results are submitted and the following day at 5:00 p.m. central standard time. we're learning a lot about these kind of arcane recount rules. wisconsin's former republican governor scott walker tweeted yesterday, "after a recount in the 2016 presidential race in wisconsin, trump's numbers went up by 131 votes." and he had tweeted this early -- 20,000 is a high hurdle. if there's anyone that knows whether president trump would potentially flip the results of the wisconsin outcome with a recount, it's scott walker. and you know, based on everything we know about how republicans have handled

insists he has got to keep fighting until he has tried every single legal avenue and certainly bill stepien his campaign manager was telling donors and supporters on a call on saturday be prepared to be called to stand in the vents that we will organize in support of the president so at the moment and it could change it's not over yet for him i don't many thanks to don official live in washington that's going to wilmington then delaware joe biden's home was a serious shell is everybody waking up after that massive saturday night party what are we expecting if anything to happen today that. well you were 'd actually standing outside the church where joe biden president elect joe biden went to mass on election day it's where his son beau is buried in a cemetery adjacent sure it's there is a possibility or probability that he would come and attend mass service either here or in one of the other churches in his hometown or close by more than he gives a statement to the press. during gore's leave so we'll wait and see in terms of practical steps he is now the president elect which means that he

about the democratic colleagues the democratic opponents in the last few hours we've heard from bill stepien who is the campaign manager he said that the democrats have been lying cheating and stealing running rampant across the country when asked for a response the biden campaign said that was simply silliness that they are filtering this message to try and back up some of the actions that they're taking across the country jason miller who was one of donald trump's closest advisors in 2016 came back to do the same sort of role this time around he says that by the end of friday the results will be known and at that point donald trump will be confirmed as president of the united states with mike pence and him spending another 4 years in the white house what is interesting with all of these court cases is that the judges have said look there's not enough evidence here and so we're hearing from the trump campaign saying there is fraud it's happening it's there we're seeing examples of it but they're never able to produce any evidence that backs that up a fair from jr in the last hour he says th

remember his name right now, of lincoln ad fame. >> brad parscale. >> when bill stepien took over and he temporarily halted all the advertising and did sort of a deep dive into the polling and looked at where trump was in states that he'd won four years ago, arizona was the state that bill stepien was most concerned about. the diagnosis from the new regime at the trump campaign was that four years of attacking john mccain, both while he was alive and after he was dead, had really hurt trump there. so this is a state that has felt very soft to a normally hubr hubristic trump team. i would also say this is a state that the very sort of humble and low-key and expectation-managing biden team, this is the one state outside the three midwestern states they've had their sights on, probably for similar reasons, as well as the reasons that rachel keeps talking about, that very competitive democratic race. martha mcsally's polls have her down today three or four points, and i think trump felt he polled to a sort of dead heat there. this is one people are keeping an eye on especially as states o

one thing bill stepien said is what we heard from the press secretary early.ght race. >> caitlyn collins, thanks. >>> let's go to david chalian with some exit polls. >> looking at georgia and virginia, it's fascinating how much they look like the nation overall. in georgia, the most important issue to voters, the economy. 36%. racial inequality, 22%. coronavirus, 14%. and which is more important to do now? containing the coronavirus or rebuilding the economy. in georgia, a slim majority says containing the coronavirus. 42% say rebuilding the economy. virginia looks similar and i have to remind you, these early exit polls are representative of the whole electorate. if you voted early, by mail absentee or in-person today on election day that's all included in these preliminary exit polls. the economy again, the top issue for virginia voters today. 35%. racial inequality, 23% say that was the most important issue. and coronavirus places third here again in virginia. 17%. again, we asked, which is more important, containing the coronavirus or rebuilding the econom

. >> here is the statement from campaign manager bill stepien. i'm going to read it, anderson.nt is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so. the campaign goes on to complain that it's a razor thin race. we knew it would be. there have been reports of irregularities in several wisconsin counties that raise doubts about the validity of the results. that's what the trump cam paper is claiming. we know in wisconsin if the margin between the candidates is less than 1%, certainly the losing candidate can, indeed, request a recount, anderson. it doesn't necessarily mean that much will change. in 2016 jill stein requested a recount and i don't think many votes shifted as all after recount. that was when donald trump won by a similar vote margin, 20,000 votes, that he's losing it right now. i think we heard wisconsin election officials say they only have about 300 votes left to count. this is near complete initial count we're seeing in wisconsin. >> the election official in wisconsin saying there's only one township that hasn't sent in results. in th

this and i know that -- about a week and a half ago the president team including campaign manager bill stepienesident down at the white house and walked him through what one of them said was the options for success, and they told me 2 wasn't a rosy picture. but the president decided that he wanted to continue on with this legal fight anyway. and i think that's what we're seeing happen now. neil: all right. once it is resolved a legal fight might not be to president like and do you and sources tell you that he would ac and said back 20 years ago ultimately losing in the supreme court, giving up the fight at that point. gratefully acknowledging that defeat and congratulating his successor. but we see something like that? >> it is a tough question neil, because as of now no one wants to discuss that possibility very seriously. they, answer that i continue to get from the top people at the campaign and in the white house is we're still focused on battle and not going to discuss any sort of confession just yet. but i do know a lot of them don't expect the president to have to be forcibly removed fr

in fact, listen to what campaign manager bill stepien told me back in july, just after he had been named campaign manager about what was happening in georgia. take a listen. >> again, i would invite the democrats to spend a lot of money in the expensive media market of atlanta. and keep thinking it's for real. because we had the same conversation in 2016. >> reporter: so back in july, stepien almost mocking democrats for their investments in the state of georgia, pointing to what happened in 2018, where democrats narrowly lost the race for governor there, and back in 2016, when president trump was able to win there. that mocking looks very different now in the light of what the results are and what the results are coming in. we should point out, though, chris, even though republicans acted like there was no chance they could lose in georgia, they spent a lot of time and money there, including what they describe as their most precious resource. president trump himself made multiple trips to the state of georgia. he went there both in official capacity and as a candidate. in fact, he made

specifically bill stepien said we look at the numbers and we're confident in our pathway, we're confident in our math. what they're confident in, john, in some of the remaining states, they said cnn has yet to call, they believe there are more votes that remain than have been estimated in the state of arizona, and that will ultimately help them narrowly edge out joe biden there. they also are expressing confidence in a victory in nevada, which is much closer, of course, than what we were expecting and they're also projecting confidence in pennsylvania but as it relates to pennsylvania, they were using some very specific wording. and that is if all legally cast ballots are counted, they will win. if illegally cast ballots are counted, they're not so sure they will win. what that comes down to, john, the president's complaints and campaign's complaints about the supreme court decision as it relates to pennsylvania and a team as it relates to counting ballot that's were postmarked before election day and arrive after election day. those are still, unless the supreme court reverses itself, th

and, you know, the president closed hard, worked really hard and i think bill stepien, his campaign manager, laid out yesterday in his twitter feed why their expectation is that it is going to be a close race but one they think the president can pull out. for me i don't know obviously what will happen tonight, but i'll be looking particularly at north carolina and pennsylvania. to me for the president's path, those are the two key states that are the most in question and i think the president will need to obviously win both of those states to be re-elected. and so to me the key tonight for the president's path is north carolina and pennsylvania and as tom put it very well, the vice president has a couple of paths to get there. >> right, and north carolina, we could see those results tonight. that could be a real early indicator. rahm emanuel? >> i would say that in the biden campaign there's cautious optimism. they've done two things very effectively in the campaign, one, made it a referendum on the president and specifically his management of the pandemic and, two, in this campaign style,

also remind our audience that bill stepien campaign manager for president was on a call earlier todayand some of the reporters who were on that call stepien urge supporters to be ready for the possibility of rallies and/or protest, quote, propping up around country stay at the ready in the moment may need your help at protest to make sure president represent argument is shown. so i just -- when we came on the air an hour ago i thook quote i wanted you to hear it for a reason the president i'm told will see through rekowngts 70 million americans many want him to see it through that means legal process. and going back to the tweet that i have read here. >> well, okay so you see the crowds out there. and it is getting darker. people are getting, you know, hopefully everybody remainings peaceful, calm, and if you're enjoying moment great and if you are not enjoying moment also again, peaceful. tom and michael are still with us, and because you two are herein i know that you're experts i think we have karl rove as well. i want to ask you about something that was brought up earlier that is

there is also going to be a phone call with the campaign manager from the trump campaign bill stepience: the pr war is as important as the legal vote. the fight to make sure every ballot is legal. how the courts could end up deciding the winner is next. >> they aren't going to steal this election. this election is decided by the people. it's still warm. ♪ thanks, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate. pay less, when you drive less. you've never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. with new bounce pet hair & lint guard,tually attract pet hair? your clothes can repel pet hair. look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet! pet hair is no match for bounce. with bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less. because record low mortgage rates have dropped even lower. and now you can save $3000 a year. veter

show that they still have a possible path to 270, pennsylvania, their campaign, campaign manager bill stepiennnsylvania on a conference call with reporters, he declared victory. we all know that's not how this works. he did that. the trump campaign had a news conference in philadelphia that featured rudy giuliani and others. they made that same claim. they believe they have enough votes to squeak out a victory there, but they acknowledge they're growing more pessimistic by the hour as the numbers come in that pennsylvania will be very, very difficult. as a final point, you're right, we're seeing sort of an incoherence in their legal challenges right now. there are three states, pennsylvania, georgia, and michigan where they're trying to stop the count and arizona they're trying to keep it going. it shows right now just a real fear that today this race is slipping away from the president. >> and there is a legal incoherence, mika, and you saw it. republicans, there are no republicans taking -- >> that's right. >> taking these challenges seriously. mitch mcconnell as well as other senators -- >

essential to the democrats' plans tonight and it's also essential to the republicans joe step bill stepiencampaign manager has crunched the numbers. i believe donald trump is going up to the podium now let's switch to washington thank you very much lisa thank you this is without question the latest news conference i've ever had. the. fact. that i appreciate it very much and i want to thank the american people for their tremendous support millions and millions of people voted for us tonight and. a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we won't stand for us to be the above want to thank the 1st lady my entire family. b.b.c. and 30 would thank the world for thank you and we were getting ready for a big celebration. we were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off the results tonight have been phenomenal and we are getting ready i mean literally we were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful so good. such a vote such a success the citizens of this country have come out in record numbers this is