joins us from atlanta blaine, good morning. >> reporter: phillip, good morning to you we have heard those warnings from health officials, from the cdc for days now urging all-americans to stay home, not travel this week, but scenes from airports around the country show that many people are not listening and that's got dr. anthony fauci now concerned about what this could look like after thanksgiving a direct and dire warning to travelers like these already packing airports ahead of the thanksgiving holiday. >> when you get a crowded plane, you're in a crowded airport, you're lining up not everybody's wearing masks. >> friday and saturday the t processed more than 2 million travelers, the highest two-day total since mid march. tauna lee traveled from laguardia. >> the thing that surprised me was people from the army were making sure they fill out health forms, have shown proof that they've taken a negative covid test within the last three days. >> experts are worried not only about the journey but the destination. >> we have commitment. >> in arlington 19 they point to this family as

the blaine people were all out thinking that blaine would win and ryman took the bets for the peopleought blaine would win, he said i will bet $100 for you, $1000 for you, and before captain ryman knew what he was doing, he had bet his entire wealth on the outcome of the presidential election in 1884. fortunately for us, in nashville, grover cleveland won. if not, captain ryman would have been penniless and would not have built this grand building. during his life, he envisioned the building as a whole for all types of religious denominations, and it could be rendered for anybody. it did not have a slant for religion, it was available for anyone. it was the largest convention hall when it was built south of the ohio river. nashville got a lot of groups and people who had events here because it was an incredible indoor space. around 1925, the grand ole opry started in another building in downtown nashville near the state capital, but during that era we had fiddling contests at the ryman auditorium. one of the fiddlers competed in a fiddling contest here at the ryman. the fiddling cont

here's nbc's blaine alexander. >> reporter: tonight millions of americans are taking to the skies or headed home after thanksgiving travel, something health officials pleaded with the public not to do. because of that travel, we are likely headed into the worst phase of the pandemic. >> what we expect as we go into december that we might see a surge super imposed upon that surge that we're already in. >> reporter: over the past week, tsa processed more than seven million passengers, less than half what we saw last year, but by far the busiest stretch since the pandemic. >> keep your masks on. be respectful of others. you will be fine. >> reporter: and while we have weathered holiday surges before, with the u.s. now topping 13 million cases, experts fear this will be much worse. we're entering this post-thanksgiving surge with three, four and ten times as much disease across the country. and that's what worries us the most. >> reporter: all as americans continue to disregard health warnings. in denver, the mayor who urged his residents to skip holiday travel is now apologizing after t

i want to bring in blaine alexander in atlanta.y of state said they can request a separate recount. that's different than what's happening today. right? >> yeah. hallie, if you will, joining me here in the weeds for a moment while i walk through through the process. what's happening right now is an audit. it's required by state law to be done before the state of georgia can certify the results. we know this is something because the margin is so close, essentially what that audit amounts to is going to be a hand recount. all 5 million ballots are going to be relooked at by a team of auditors. after the results are certified on november 20th, if it's within a half a percent margin, then either campaign can still request a recount. but we haven't gotten to that step yet. so let's look at the audit. the process going on right now as of this morning. what it is is the ballots are going to be looked at by a team of two aud ho or thes. this process is meticulous. auditor number one looks at the ballot, reads out the name, the chosen name,

blain al sa blain blayne alexander in atlanta, thank you. >>> a few moments ago, nbc news confirmed thatry of housing and urban development, and a retired neurosurgeon has tested positive for coronavirus. that coming down a few moments ago. we're working to gather more information. when we do, we will bring that to you. >>> let's stay in georgia for a moment. if there's one group that helped president-elect joe biden win this election, black voters. it wasn't long ago, his campaign was on life support. you probably remember the south carolina primary, really became a turning point for mr. biden. he won with support from 61% of black voters there following an endorsement by congressman jim clyburn. in the general election, 87% of black voters supported him. more than any other demographic group. that's according to exit polls. let's bring in tiffany cross, a fellow at harvard kennedy school. also the author of "say it louder," black voters, white -- and saving our democracy. and joyce wilson, study of hip hop at georgetown. t tiffany, the support from black voters for joe biden has been c

blaine can was among the star democrat diplomats who love the idea of getting libya sorted through intervention. his c.v. highlights include deputy secretary of state deputy national security advisor and national security advisor to the vice president. so moving on with deputy dream team, you simply don't deserve the position of intelligence director under joe biden. if you haven't been deputy to a big name, let's say in the cia under obama, without further ado. here's avril haynes, the former deputy cia director also happened to serve as the deputy national security advisor right after tony blinken. some give ms. hanes credit for making america's drone wars more transparent. her critics though, paint her with a different brush focusing on her role as the architect of the drone program. one which is associated with scores of civilian deaths. a slight stain on the record, isn't it? any great team deserves at least a few qualified veterans. this one is no exception. take john kerry, he's getting his comeback. chance to the job of special presidential envoy for climate goes to the former secretary

blaine, thanks. >>> for the coronavirus on the horizon and inching closer by the day, health departments across the country are developing their plans for a rollout. with more than one vaccine in the works, officials are facing the unprecedented effort of how to track it all. >> reporter: the final delivery of the long-awaited covid vaccine will come down to local health departments. >> the port at the distal end, namely getting it into people's arms, is going to be more challenging than the regular flu season >> reporter: skilled at measles, flu, other vaccination efforts, they've never had to do something like this. why does the covid-19 vaccine present unique problems? >> we all have to remember, we've never been in a position where we have to vaccinate 330 million people this is the most massive effort to date. >> reporter: we talked to health officials across the country about the challenges ahead in houston the memorial herman hospital is doing practice drills. >> we've done all of the preparation. we've completed the plans. we've practiced in terms of the distribution so we think

my name is blaine ossko, with the state and government affairs based in the state of hawaii.thank you for the opportunity to highlight the unintended consequences contemplated in the proposal set forth by the healthy workers' ordinance. as a follow-up from last week we have confirmed that the b.l.a. cost impact report was woefully under in its cost estimates and it inaccurately paints the impact. and the math really matters here. s.f.o. is among the most expensive in the country for airlines and passengers. significantly it increases the cost of doing business at s.f.o. and it will have a negative impact on the supply and demand for air service and it will result in additional job losses. this kind of legislation limits the competition and restricts the growth, especially for

nbc's blaine alexander looks at the extreme ways they are looking to keep students and families safe. >> reporter: it was a semester of scenes like these that health officials blamed for outbreaks at colleges nationwide now experts worry that hundreds of thousands of students spanning across the country for holiday break could bring the virus home for the holidays. >> we want them to remember as they go home they'll be going to a different environment. they may be going home to families where there may be elderly relatives and we want to make sure they go home without the virus. >> reporter: at cornell university officials are urging students to stay on campus but for those who do travel, they are offering exit testing. sophomore caylee zong is one of them she just got tested today. both she and her parents worry about her making the trip from new york home florida. >> i'm going to be isolated in my room, minimize contact with them for a while i want to be safe. i don't want to put them in danger. >> reporter: at the university of arizona the school's president, a medical doctor, says

the trio of milicent tanner, blaine ridge and luisa steele were beaten by russia in the final. now. we'll have much more later. hello there. for most of us it will be dry with some sunshine next to high pressure, but cloud, wind and rain will start to push into western areas later on over the next weather system. it's the overnight wind and rain clearing off into the north sea. this is the ridge of high pressure, an area of low pressure will arrive across the west later on. could see a bit of a hang back of cloud and rain across the northern isles, but most places will be dry with some sunshine, thickening cloud, strengthening breeze and patchy rain arriving. temperature is 11—13 , a few degrees down from what we've had the last couple days. this frontal system sta rts couple days. this frontal system starts to work its way eastward during tonight. for friday, it will be line through central area so with fairly strong winds, it should clear away the course of the morning and thenit away the course of the morning and then it brightens up with plenty of sunshine and lots of heavy

bla blaine, how confident are democrats that they can flip the state? >> reporter: we are in the state where kamala harris delivered her closing arguments for the state of georgia. wrapped up not long ago. this comes on the heels of joe biden doing something similar. and former president barack obama will be here tomorrow. it is crucial for democrats, and they believe they have a chance to flip the state blue. georgia has been, three decades, a reliably red state. the last time this state went blue was back in 19 noompt we are talking about 30 years, the fact that it is in a solid battle ground territory is new territory for the state of georgia, it is something that both candidates are clearly acting upon. i gave you a run down, president trump is holding a rally of his own later in georgia, northwest part of the state. rallying his base there. keep this in mind, he won the state by five points in 2016, without making a stop here. after he became the party nominee. fast forward to 2020, we are seeing him in the peach state two times in the final three

it is definitely a swing state nbc's blaine alexander had a few issues how today? >> reporter: well, today, shepherd, it was like night and day. in june we saw the long lines well apart it was almost the polar opposite as of this afternoon the secretary of state tells me the average wait time here in the state of georgia was only about 2 minutes. certainly a lot of issues alleviated this is going directly to the fact that early voting played a lot. they urged people to cast their ballots early. they did to the tune of 3.9 million people when you come to actual election day, they go to the polls. the secretary of state tells me that he believes that they will have the state's results completely tallied as early as the end of the night and at the very latest by noon tomorrow that's major because this is a state it went blue from bill clinton and that's why they're watching all the more results. georgia is a tale of two states. it's rural all around atlanta and not including it then there is the part that the biden camp is hoping for it's atlanta and the nine counties

tefs wa it was a big election and everyone thought blaman was going to w -- blaine was going to win,nd ryman would take bets for blaman to win. i'll take 500 from you, 100 from you, 20 from you, and before he knew it, he had bet his house in the 1880 election. thank goodness grover cleveland won, because if not, ryman would be penniless and broke and probably would not have built this a few years later. he envisioned this building as a hall for all types of religious dom nations and it could be rendered for anybody, so it did not have one particular slant for religion, it was available for everyone, which it was the largest convention hall when it was built south of the ohio river. so nashville got a lot of groups and people that came and had their events here because this was an incredible indoor space. around 1925, the grand ole opry started in another building in downtown nashville near our state capital, but during that era, we had fiddling contests here at the ryman auditorium. one of the fiddlers, dr. dave macon, who was later a member of the grand ole opry in that era, compete

blaine alexander is live for us in atlanta.reading about slow counts especially problems in fulton county. what light can you shed on this? >> reporter: yeah, all night, brian, we've been hearing steve talk about that cluster of counties near metro atlanta democrats really are determining will go blue or relying onto go blue. a big part what they're relying onto get that final count is in that arena behind me. that's also where all the county's absentee ballots are being counted in a room kind up near the suite level of the are arena. well, there are some delays trying to figure exactly when they'll get them counted. they could spend the better part of the next two days making sure they tabulate all these ballots that come in, but i spoke to other officials who kind of down-played that saying they're aiming to get it down by the end of the day. what does that mean for the state of georgia? it could mean a big delay. it's the home of atlanta of course, so the big question is when can they get this done? and also flies in the fac

joining me now from atlanta with the late zest blaine alex za-- with blayne alexander. fascinating dynamic and is going to be -- going to make you at the center of the political world for the next couple of months. what do you think the dynamics are on the ground. sources were telling me that if we go to two runoffs, it is more likely in georgia. not looking up, of course like that is what is going to happen. how are democrats feeling on the ground in georgia about how this will play out. what do they need to get their candidates over the line? >> right now everybody in georgia is keenly aware that this is far beyond the state of georgia. we're seeing millions of dollars flowing into the state of georgia to help the democrats or the republicans. let me break down what the strategy is right here. i talked today a number of democrats in the state and many of them are over the moon optimistic with the fact that joe biden now being called the president elect is going to drive more enthusiasm for their voters. it is more a matter of making sure that both sides get the turnou

blaine is in dunwoody, florida. >> it does look impt than it has in years past.till here. so at this macy's the doors open at 5:00 am. many going in before sunrise. didn't see much of that this year. instead experts expect that much of the shops will be done online. >> this morning the new face of black friday with covid cases on the rise nationwide instead of massive crowds, deals spanning for a month or more. >> versus everybody, 200 people jamming through a vestibule at one time. there is no sense of urgency at this point to show up it is a limited amount of time to get a black friday or a promotional discount. >> walmart and macy's are among the retailers rolling them out in november. >> we saw retailers adapt quickly to the new environment. strict covid precautions, cleaning with increased frequency, and in most stores masks is a must. >> everybody wears their masks, and everyone keeps their distance. >> but there are warnings across packed malls. crowded shopping is a higher risk activity. already online shoppers have spent more than $60 billion this month.

blaine ax blayne alexander in atlanta. >>> a judge in pennsylvania dismissed the trump campaign's effort to invalidate the election results. the judge describing the case as a frankenstein's monster and calling efforts to disenfranchise pennsylvania's voters, quote, unhinged. chuck todd is nbc's political director and moderator of "meet the press." good morning. here we are nearly three weeks after election day. the vote has certified in the close race in georgia. joe biden won there. we have this federal judge in pennsylvania effectively smacking down giuliani and the trump campaign team there. where is this headed now? pat toomey in pennsylvania saw the ruling last night and said, okay, time to move on, joe biden is president-elect. will more dominos begin to fall now? >> look, i will be honest. a week ago i said to you that i thought the georgia recount would be the trigger. it wasn't. look, as much as i feel like i have got to learn the lesson of how long and how slow the republican party will go on this when it comes to distancing itself from president trump or pushing back against

my understanding of what's going on with blaine plasticity we can open up this whole new set of theories and the framework about what the brain is a doing under hood and why. i want to tell you the next principle and i'm moving fast through highlights here but next principle is that the brain will rapid itself -- the brain wrapped itself around new data streams and you can to the audio here but this is a ted talk i gave and i built a vest with vibratory motors on it and it's like the buzzers on your cell phone and the best is capturing sound and turning the sound into patterns of vibration on the skins what's happening is i was speaking and my skin is feeling that going on from low to high equency and this is a video, by the way. thisoman on the left is saying the word of sound and on the ght she's saying the word touch. if you just look at the way the tors are mapped from low to high frequency y can see its sound and if you look on her shoulders you can see thathere is a high frequency there. the pnt is for people who are deaf what we can do is feed the information through an unusual ch

>> reporter: when the pandemic puppy frenzy took off in march, blaine was skepticalie fever has yet to but the last waitlist for her designer dogs indicates america's doggy fever has yet to break. >> we gave 24 hours notice that we would open our waiting list to accept applications, never dreaming that we would get 40 in the first two hours and have to stop accepting applications at that point >> reporter: fuelling the frenzy, families like the gahlams. >> my two daughters are 2020 graduates and they missed out on their senior year. i just wanted to get something to make them happy >> reporter: elva declined to say how much she spent, but admits she splurged and got not one, but two mini golden doodles, one each for her daughters emily and lea. a decision motived by covid. >> it kind of pushed her over the edge, made her a little soft and somehow we ended up with two puppies. >> reporter: the sisters say the dogs have cheered them up. >> they're always playing with each other, causing some chaos in the house. >> reporter: not every house is so lucky >> every day right now i think is li

blaine, you're in georgia. an important state we're watching perhaps early in the evening.'s a big change in atlanta. police are stationed at polling sites. what are officers looking for and how are voters reacting to the presence of police at the polls? >> it is a major change. we're in fulton county, georgia's most populous county. every single polling location has an officer to watch out for voter intimidation. the aclu of georgia has volunteers across the state of georgia doing the same thing. if we look outside, there are a number of volunteers out here that i've spoken with, talking to voters as they come in and out and making sure the experience is smooth. i want to introduce you to wesley. you came in, you brought your young daughter to vote as well. but you said that those reports of possible intimidation, or people coming out here to possibly confront voters, that was on your mind when you came out here? >> yeah. it surely was. i had to make sure i paid attention to the cars as i was pulling in because i have my baby girl with me. you know? you hear the reports of

blain blayne thank you for your reports as always.our of coverage, you were a well placed republican, is that fair? >> yes, i think so. i hope so. >> i think we have just visually on the screen for folks mcconnell, romney, and others comes out last night and very clearly just a whole battery of tweets here, i will tell people the bottom line, it is strength in numbers. it's prominent republicans that are completely breaking with druch's claims last night. what does that tell you. >> it tells me that everyone can read the polls and the numbers. they know which way the wind is blowing. there will be more shouting. the president despite his statement this afternoon i think is not ready to be done fighting yet, but all of the smart republicans it seems are sensing which way the wind is blowing and giving statement that's are perfectly reasonable. let's count them all. let's make sure there isn't any fraud. at the end of the process i believe they expect joe biden to be the president of the united states. >> you put it correctly that these

what is it like there, blaine? >> reporter: well it is quite remarkable here.re in fulton county, the most populous county in the state of georgia and the thing that stood out to me today and so many people watching georgia is what you heard garrett say, the short lines. just walk with me. this is where we were back in june and the lines were stretched there around and the corner and around the corner again. people were waiting forge hours. i spoke to a woman holding her baby and getting rained on waiting for four hours. today literally like night and day. and officials, every official i've talked to from precinct managers to the secretary of state are pointing to early voting. because people turned out in such large and record breaking numbers, almost 4 million people cast their ballots early and that is why we're seeing this around the state of georgia seeing short wait times. about two minutes on average the secretary of state said for the state of georgia. all that means with georgia being so closely watched today as a possible state that could be flipped b

pla blaine, what are you expecting? >> reporter: you know what, we talk about how close this is and seems to be getting even closer as we get more batches of votes coming in. as of right now we are looking at a fewer than 0.4% differential between president trump and former vp joe biden. that's less than 20,000 votes. so what's remarkable about that, hallie, when you compare this to yesterday morning, about the same time, at that point there was about a 2.2% difference between the two candidates, now shrunk to 0.4% and a big part of that has to do with the places we're seeing the votes come in from. let me show you where we are right now. that state farm arena reporting from this location for the better part of the past 24 hours, that is where the ballots are counted for fulton county. it's metro atlanta and it tends to lean heavily democratic, so as we're seeing more and more of those votes come in, we're seeing that gap between the two candidates grow smaller and smaller, with joe biden gaining more of an advantage. l

when blaine should have been more fairly distributed. i thought this was essentially this last year was going to settle the score, the japanese, this was a book that should have been dedicated to them in recognition of the fact that our country did them wrong. >> matt cannon on facebook would like to know what do either of you think of the failure of some historians that the soviet invasion of injury had a greater impact on the japanese decision to surrender rather than the two atom bombs, some historians argue the japanese would rather surrender to pragmatic americans than the communist soviet union. any thoughts on that? >> i agree with the last part. the timeline, hiroshima and nagasaki, the soviet union suddenly declared war with japan surprising japan on august 9th. essentially you had the red army charge into mention area, this was a tremendous blow to the japanese not only because of the immediate military emergency it created but also because their sole remaining hope of the diplomatic exit to the war was to bring stalin to the m

>>there are tell you who to vote for but got to vote or else you cannot come blaine that is your right to complain for the next 4 years right. so if you want to come down here take a look at your screen. these are the hours and the location begins at 8 o'clock this morning goes all the way until 5 o'clock this evening and of course the polling places if you want to personally go down and vote that begins tomorrow at 7 o'clock in the morning goes all the way until 8 o'clock in the evening. across the bay steph curry you always listen to your coach ray and that's what he did he took too. the warriors training facility in oakland he was talking to the poll workers telling them they are the true mvp for being out there and getting this whole system working they're step talking about november, 3rd. >>so the nation down to the wire. >>tuesday november. there's a big day. if you haven't voted early what about male there's still time you come down and live in alameda county come downtown oakland to practice facility right here. and you can register and vote. make sure that your voice is heard

if you want to blaine trump for it, it's because president trump with backbone to stand up china. he goes over there and puts america first. -- have this media host: the balance of power overall. currently as of 6:00 or so eez close -- east coast sign, of their 100 81 republicans and 188 democrats and 66 races too close to call. 40 senate republicans, 45 republicans, -- 47 45 democrats and two independents. one of them is john hinn -- one of the democrats is john hickenlooper. >> good evening. tonight, your message is loud and clear. it's time to put the poisonous politics of this era behind us. coloradans are in this desk phone in this election than any election in our state's history. colorado is going to have the of peopleter turnout are saying it's time to turn the page. in helping people and that's exactly what i intend to do. i am honored by the trust you've placed in me and i'm deeply committed to the job ahead. we have got to get washington working for everyone. regardless of which party ends up controlling the senate, i want you to know that i will work with anyone and ev

my name is blaine ossko, with the state and government affairs based in the state of hawaii. thank you for the opportunity to highlight the unintended consequences contemplated in the proposal set forth by the healthy workers' ordinance. as a follow-up from last week we have confirmed that the b.l.a. cost impact report was woefully under in its cost estimates and it inaccurately paints the impact. and the math really matters here. s.f.o. is among the most expensive in the country for airlines and passengers. significantly it increases the cost of doing business at s.f.o. and it will have a negative impact on the supply and demand for air service and it will result in additional job losses. this kind of legislation limits the competition and restricts the growth, especially for smallerriers like hawaiian airlines at s.f.o. and has unsustainable increases for our carrier. in addition to that i want to point out some specific burdens that exist with respect to the h.w.o. very rarely in any job marketplace can you find plans that are available to employees at no cost, let alone t

. >> joining me now is one of those candidates blaine just mentioned, he is democratic senate candidatefael warnock. sorry to get tongue-tied there. >> no problem. great to be with you, jonathan. thank you so much. >> sure. let me ask you this, how important is it that both president obama and senator kamala harris are coming to georgia in the closing hours of the election? >> oh, it means one thing, georgia is the battleground state. we really are on the verge of victory and change here in georgia and you can feel it on the ground. i'm on a bus right now, we've been moving all across this state, and -- from dalton to dublin, from marietta to macon, people are excited and there is this sense that people are hungry for change and a deep gratitude that georgia is at the center of our changing and turning the page in america toward a brighter and better future for our families. >> one of the ways that you can change georgia is to win your senate race. i'm going to put up some poll numbers. monmouth university poll shows you leading your two competitors, republican competitors, the incumben

down south, the biden campaign make a big push in georgia, hoping to expand the electoral map nbc's blainetlanta for us georgia nearly always goes for the republican presidential candidate. >> reporter: absolutely, savannah for the better part of 30 years this state has gone red. this is very new territory for georgia. it's battleground territory and both campaigns absolutely know it that's why in the week leading up to election day you've seen president trump, former president obama, you've seen joe biden and kamala harris all make stops here in the peach state in a place that does not get a lot of attention in those final hours before election day. for the democrats, a big part of that closing argument is appealing to black voters. consider this, across the country there are 30 million eligible black voters this year. that's higher than ever before here in the state of georgia they make up nearly 30% of the electorate so it really shows that there is such power to make a difference, to sway this election, particularly in those close states now, when i've spoken with a number of voters he