nbc's geoff bennett reports the trump mega donor that trump recently installed at postmaster generalxperience was in the oval office before he met with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer to discuss delivery delays after he had made big cuts and fired top managers. and nbc news confirms a vice news report that the postal service has removed sorting machines from facilities around the country without any official explanation and also that the postal service warned election officials in michigan and pennsylvania that their mail-in balloting deadlines could be too tight to meet delivery standards, telling pennsylvania, it is unlikely there will be enough time to complete the process in time for election day. we will hear more from the president in the next hour. we begin with nbc white house correspondent and "weekend today" co-host kristen welker, nbc's mike memoli covering the biden campaign, we're expecting them shortly, nbc white house correspondent geoff bennett, and "usa today" washington bureau chief susan page. i should be clear that joe biden and kamala harris will be filing their o

lester >> all right, geoff bennett, thanks. >>> two weeks after a gunman shot and killed the son of a federal judge in new jersey and wounded her husband the judge is now speaking out in a powerful and heartbreaking video statement. anne thompson has her story. >> the weekend was a glorious one it was filled with love and laughter and smiles >> reporter: painfully, angrily esther salas describes the weekend she and her husband mark celebrated their son's 20th birthday and lost him. >> and daniel said, mom, let's keep talking. i love talking to you, mom. and it was at that exact moment that the doorbell rang. and daniel looked at me and said, who is that and before i could say a word he sprinted upstairs within seconds i heard the sound of bullets and someone screaming no but daniel being daniel protected his father and he took the shooter's first bullet directly to the chest. the monster then turned his attention to my husband and began to shoot at my husband. one shot after another. mark was shot three times. >> reporter: salas reveals the shooter, attorney roy den hollander who appe

help finance the president's controversial border wall bannon appearing in court late today, our geoff bennett has late details. >> reporr: campaign boss tonight facing federal charges, steve bannon, once a top aide to president trump, his first chief strategist in the white house. arrested off the coast of connecticut this morning aboard a 150 foot yacht he does not own. prosecutors say the 66-year-old, along with three others, raised more than $25 million, in a campaign they said would go entirely to build sections of the southern border wall. >> everything that this company is doing, build the wall, it's all to support president trump and what president trump's trying to do to get a physical barrier on the southern border. if you join it and we get it out to your friends it will be a multiplier and we'll actually not just get a wall built, we'll save this country. >> reporter: but the government says they actually took hundreds of thousands of dollars for themselves bannon's virtual arraignment today captured in this court sketch steve bannon was one of the architects of president trump's 2

here's geoff bennett >> reporter: exclusive new images obtained by nbc news appear to show high volume mail sorting machines out of service and dismantled, this one which can process 30,000 pieces of mail an hour and which postal employees tell us was in good working condition recently removed from a waterloo, iowa post office now stored in a garage despite assurances from the postal service the machines were being reallocated. >> it's currently just, in moth balls here >> reporter: kimberly carroll is president of the yeah postal workers union. >> it's changed our our customers are receiving the mail we're seeing significant delay in the mail. >> reporter: in portland, oregon a postal employee says these sorting machines were in working condition before being decommissioned in the past two weeks these images have not been independently verified by nbc news in grand rapids, michigan, a disassembled machine today found sitting in a post office parking lot, reached for response the postal service had no comment beyond tuesday's announcement from postmaster general louis dejoy, who suspen

>> geoff bennett at the white house, thanks. >>> for the first time facebook has removed a post from president trump's page for, quote, harmful covid misinformation the social media giant took down a clip from his interview with fox news in which the president falsely claimed children are, quote, almost immune. >>> and new york city is tightening its coronavirus restrictions on travelers beginning tonight, check points being set up at key entry points, including penn station and the port authority bus hub to enforce the state's quarantine rules. travelers from 34 states are required to self-isolate for 14 days and fill out contact forms or face a $2,000 fine. >>> also in the northeast, millions still without power after tropical storm isaias carved a deadly path of destruction. gabe gutierrez on the urgent scramble tonight. >> reporter: tonight the northeast is rushing to restore power after one of the largest outages since super storm sandy eight years ago. >> still in shock. >> reporter: tropical storm isaias roared through here, knocking out electricity to about 3 million people a

. >> reporter: this is geoff bennett, in upstate "new york post"al clerk lori cash rises just after midnight each morning, a local union president says the early hours don't bother her what does are the dramatic changes she's seen recently in the way mail is delivered. >> our cardinal rule is to not delay the mail to have someone come in and all the sudden tell us we're not going to deliver all of the mail every day is a complete change in the culture that we were taught from day one. >> cash along with fellow post workers michael and dale of cleveland told me the new mandates implemented by postmaster general louis dejoy are causing an unprecedented slowdown in mail. >> we want to just do our jobs to the best of our ability and we get the resources to do them. >> reporter: dejoy a republican megadonor and trump ally to took over in june argues his cost cutting mores are aimed at overhauling an agency suffering billion dollar losses, overtime for workers, erased, post office operating hours reduced. leading to service slowdowns, and delivery delays from coast-to-coast. >> we've had mail that

as for the coronavirus relief bill, both sides now say they hope to vote by next week lester >> geoff bennett at the white house, thanks. >>> there is growing concern this evening about the spread of covid in the midwest and south, many states getting hit harder than ever. here is miguel almaguer >> reporter: tonight inside hospitals in the south and midwest, some emergency rooms are now taking on a growing wave of covid patients as officials brace for a tsunami of new infections mississippi on track to become the number one state for coronavirus cases per capita doctors are overwhelmed. morgues are over run in tennessee, july brought a 139% increase in cases. deaths in south carolina have risen 86% over the last two weeks. >> these patients are some of the sickest we've ever seen. and they're getting younger and younger. >> reporter: despite the continual plea for social distancing, scenes like this party near beverly hills overnight, are still unfolding. even sanctioned events like this speedway race in south dakota drawing large crowds doctors say those who flout health mandates are fuelin

geoff bennett, nbc news, washington. >>> and the father of jacob blake we just heard from says he was outraged to find his son was shackled in the hospital after he was left paralyzed by that police shooting tonight blake's attorney says the shackles were removed. gabe gutierrez comes to us from kenosha, wisconsin. >>> tonight the sheriff's office says bond was posted in that he's no longer shackled to his hospital bed wisconsin's top law enforcement officer responding late today. >> do you believe that it was appropriate for him to be shackled to the bed given that he was paralyzed from the waist down >> i do not think that mr. bake should have been in handcuffs, know. >> reporter: earlier kenosha officials said the restraints were standard procedure. >> he's being guarded because i was under arrest, it was for an outstanding warrant on third degree sexual assault. >>> another officer unsuccessfully deployed a taser, and officer brittany -- was also there after a woman called 911 saying her boyfriend wasn't supposed to be on the premises. wisconsin's attorney general says only office

just moments ago president trump strongly suggested that the beirut explosion was no accident geoff bennett is at the white house with late details >> reporter: president trump describing the massive explosion in beirut as an attack >> i met with some of our great generals and they seem to feel this was. this was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. it was a bomb of some kind >> reporter: his comments coming during a press briefing on the coronavirus response the president touting his administration's handling of the pandemic during a wide ranging interview with axios reporter jonathan swan >> i think it's under control. >> reporter: how a thousand americans are dying a day. >> they are dying. that's true. it is what it is but that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. it's under control as much as you can control it this is a horrible plague that beset us. >> reporter: the president sorting through pages of charts when pressed on the country's coronavirus death count. >> right here, the united states is lowest in numerous categories we're lower than the world

geoff bennett, white house correspondent for nbc news.hn dickerson, "60 minutes" corresndent, political for cbs news and author of "the hardest job in the world: the american presidency." and susan page, washington bureau chief for usa today. geoff, when you talked to your sources in the white house about this election standoff, wha do you hear? what is the end game? >> well, you know, republican sources i talke to were quick to dismiss the president's notion of delaying the election, dismissing that as more esidential trumpian bluster and bravado. democrats say it' evidence of if fact that this -- the fact that this president will stop at nothing to question the vality of an election that at the current moment he appears tocke on to losing. they also say it's no idle threat. a top trump donor who he appointed as post master general has made a number of budget cuts and changes at the post office that right nowte have res in about a two-day delay in the delivery of mail, even with express mail. there are postal workers who say if that does not change come election day, there could be cha

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at the post office, including delays in mail delivery and whether it may impact mail-in voting geoff bennettorts. >> reporter: postmaster general louis dejoy on defense today, facing scathing criticism over delays, argued the postal service is up to the task of handling election mail. >> the postal service is fully capable, and committed to delivering the nation's ballots securely and on time >> reporter: in his two months on the job dejoy has overseen a series of recent policy changes blamed for severe service slowdowns. he said he will not replace mail sorting machines removed on his watch. how can one person screw this up in just a few weeks? will you put the -- will you put the machines back? >> no, i will not. >> reporter: dejoy acknowledged a dip in mail service but disputed reports of widespread delivery problems but house democrats released internal postal service documents showing steep declines and delays in a range of mail service starting in early july. shortly after dejoy took over. >> we started seeing delays more heavily within the past like four weeks. >> reporter: carmen rad

. >> and geoff bennett joins us now. s been in charge of a new nbc unit, really digging into this. geoff, you've done all the reporting i think joining us by phone tell us some of the most egregious effects you've seen of some of these cutbacks especially veterans getting their medicines and some other critical functions no longer happening in realtime. seeing it already in our mail here in d.c. >> reporter: right about that, andrea. military veterans too depend on the vanch.a. for prescription d. fills prescriptions to veterans through the u.s. postal af al s. it's all over the country. spoke to one veteran last night lives in indiana. air force veteran. former secret service agent who has to drive two hours round trip to pick up life-saving heart medication, because of the delay in the mail was just so long. he's now wait are fog a medical device normally takes three to five days in the mail once sent from the v.a. and now taking some three weeks. this is an issue even as the president continues to attack the post offic

geoff bennett just out of the oval office. geoff, i'm going to start with tom on the details of bannon and then come to you because you just had these exchanges with the president. talk to us about steve bannon. what's in this indictment and when will we see steve bannon in court? >> andrea, to answer your last question, we don't have a specific time just yet on when we expect him into court. he is expected to appear in lower manhattan later today. a couple of details that myself, pete williams have been able to confirm, while the president was speaking, that bannon was taken into company without incident. multiple law enforcement officials tell nbc news this morning, along the coast of connecticut, the long island sound, a 150-long boat, let's call it what it is, a yacht, testifihe was taken into company by the united states postal service without incident, as i said. he was on his way to the courthouse in new york city. then at that time he is expected to, according to our colleague hallie jackson, expected to plead not guil

geoff bennett at the white house, garrett haake on the hill following that hearing. geoff, i'll start with you. you've been following this controversy from the very beginning. did democrats, did they get the answers they were looking for from the new postmaster general? >> i think so, craig. i think democrats and republicans found this hearing useful, helpful and instructive. among the takeaways is the thing you just mentioned. dejoy committed to handling election mail as first class mail despite the postage used. that's important because the postal service had emphasized to states that in this election the states would get the service that they pay for. a number of states -- i'll try to explain this as simply as i can, because a lot of this postal service stuff is confusing unless you happen to work at the postal service. a lot of states used the lower rate bulk mail rate to send out ballots because previously the postal service would handle those ballots at the first class rate no matter what postage was used. that was going to be a change. you heard those lawmakers

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monica alba and geoff bennett, thank you guys as well. with me now is kentucky's secretary of state, michael adams. thank you so much for joining us. give us your assessment on the security of the election in your state for november. >> well, we had to accommodate obviously the change of circumstances for our primary. it was scheduled to be in may. we moved it to june, and we expanded absentee voting. usually we have about 2% of our votes cast absentee. it was 75% in our primary. and we handled it in a very competent way and we think we'll do that in the fall. there were a lot of predictions we could have a debacle and they turned out to be wrong. >> you negotiated this with a democratic governor in your state. why does this issue transcend party? >> well, the democrats and republicans want to vote this fall, so do independents and everybody else. actually t worked out pretty well in kentucky, our law is pretty unique, and in a state of emergency, the election rules can be changed last minute. we have a part-time legislature. they weren't

geoff bennett are those postal workers linking with the decommissioned machines, are they links this with the president and louis dejoy making a concerted effort to slow down the mail, or is this coincident? >> in a word, katy, yes. there's no explanation for it. there's one in tacoma, washington, and one in dallas, texas, postal workers with permission have attempted to repair and reinstall the machines. a postal employees at the dallas plant provided this image. i'm told they spent the last week or so bush they got a directive yesterday, i'm told from usps that workers were not permitted to reinstall the machines. the barcode readers had been trashed. you can't process them without the barcode readers. even as louis said this plan existed before him, it is true he's executed the plan to remove these high-volume sorting machines. in the document i obtained where we got that document, showing that all of these machines were slated to be taken out, it was dated in june, well after mr. dejoy was on the job. katy. >> really quickly, are they saying they won't be able to handle the amoun

joining me is nbc news correspondent geoff bennett. so geoff, i guess outside isn't just for recess anymore. >> you're right about that, chris. can you hear me? >> yeah, you were broken up a little bit. we can hear you fine. >> oh. okay. well, look, the number of school districts are trying to find ways to pursue in-person schooling. what they're doing is they're moving classrooms outside. since most school buildings aren't built for social distancing, i traveled to two schools, one here in maryland, and another right outside philadelphia, to see how they're doing it. take a look. >> as schools across the country scramble to reopen safely, this school in montgomery county, maryland, has found a solution in its own backyard. it's moving all fall classes outdoors. >> theida data shows being outds drastically decreases the chance of transmission. >> this is the head of school serving children ages 2 to 12, armed with a masters degree in public health, she weighed reopening aungzs and concluded outdoor schooling was the safest, pointing to

geoff bennett for us there outside. geoff, thank you. >>> teachers around the country facing an impossible decision, endanger their health and go back to school, or leave the classrooms they love? we'll look at that part of the story. >>> also for so many college students, this pandemic has upended their lives, as well. this is normally the time for college students to head back to campus. coming up, we'll hear from them in their own words about the collages they're facing. >>> and we've been getting so many great questions from our viewers and listeners on sirius satellite radio about the safety of returning to school. we'll put them to an expert for answers, just ahead. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ another bundle in the books. got to hand it to you, jamie. your knowledge of victorian architecture really paid off this time. nah, just got lucky. so did the thompsons. that faulty wiring could've cost them a lot more than the mudroom. thankfully they bundled their motorcycle with their home and auto. they're protected 24/7. mm. what do you s

joining us now is nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett. so geoff, i was watching the sunday shows over the weekend, and mark meadows was talking about how they weren't going to make any more changes to the postal service and they wanted to bring the democrats back to the table to put postal funding into a broader bill about the pandemic relief. it sounded like they were trying to use funding the postal service as a bargaining chip for getting more or less, i guess, in the pandemic relief bill. >> yeah, as a leverage point. i think you're right about that, katy. the thing is president trump himself has not really signaled what he would accept. he's been all over the map in recent weeks, and there's nothing to suggest that these talks between the white house and house speaker nancy pelosi about the next coronavirus relief bill will pick up after they fell apart some weeks ago. i think the big headline right now that house democrats are seizing upon is what you mentioned. that the post master general has agreed to appear for this emergency sch

geoff bennett is in washington, d.c. for us. first on the interview that took place with my colleagues at abc. biden and harris reacting to the president's name calling. how so? >> reporter: your former colleagues at abc, kendis. >> yes. lest we forget. >> reporter: the former vice president said he would shutdown the country if that is what scientists advise to stop the spread of covid-19. that stands in contradiction to what president trump has done. here we are some six months into the pandemic and no national st tracing and no school plan. we have seen the patchwork approach from the states. the coronavirus crisis is still persistent. he, vice president biden, and kamala harris, senator harris, were asked about the president's racist attack an where where heg to fuel the birther lie to suggest that kamala harris is something other than fully american. the senator took that head on. take a look at how she responded. >> i think that there is so much about what comes out of donald trump's mouth that is designed to distract the

joining me capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt and geoff bennett. welcome to you both. kasie at it late last night. 8:00 a.m. eastern. is senator mitch mcconnell a player in any of this. >> reporter: seems to be the big question. he, of course, running his own re-election race in kentucky, wasn't a part of meetings over the weekend, though he set things up procedurally to move this week if he wands to. we really don't know where senate republicans generally are going to land on this. there's an increasing sense among democrats this morning and over the last 24 hours that the administration is coming to a point where they're more interested in making a big deal with that deadline with unemployment benefits essentially expiring. so many millions of americans losing those payments. the pressure is really on. the president is really taking the political heat for all of this, and house democrats know that. they have been holding the line on these negotiations. you started to hear their both public comments and in private conversations that i and my colleagues have been havin

nbc's geoff bennett was there. >> reporter: they came by the tens of thousands, demonstrators packinghe lincoln memorial and lining the national mall friday, demanding justice. 57 years to the day after dr. martin luther king jr. delivered his "i have a dream" speech at the same site. >> we are rising up. >> reporter: the reverend al sharpton organized the event following the police killing of george floyd. >> demonstration without legislation will not lead the to change. >> reporter: activists demanding policing reform, equal access to the ballot box and an end to systemic racism. friday's march unfolding during a summer of protest over police violence against black americans. the latest 29-year-old jacob blake. his father travelled to washington for the march >> i'm worried about the two systems of justice that surround us until the system is just, there is no justice. >> reporter: that sentiment shared by others in the crowd we talked to friday >> you get nervous, you get scared as a black man you got to be so strong, so powerful, i can't show my tears. >> americans are marching to

geoff bennett continues to follow the story for us. thank you. >>> i want to bring back former senator barbara boxer for a moment. senator boxer, we just heard from geoff there about what democrats in congress are trying to do, what they are planning to do to try to protect the postal service. is it enough? >> listen, the first thing is to haul this postmaster general in front of the american people. what he is doing is dangerous. it's actually a matter of life and death, as you pointed out. if you have high blood pressure, and you're not on your medicine, the chances are you could get a heart attack, a stroke. if you can't sleep and you have ptsd as a veteran, you could just get so desperate that you hurt yourself or others. this is serious. yes, i think the first step is for them to come back. i'm very glad they're coming back. it's essential. look, this president said why he is doing this. this is no mystery. he said he wants to wreck the election. you have it on tape. you can hear it any day of the week. he said he doesn't like mail

nbc's geoff bennett. appreciate. >>> it now to the politics surrounding the post office and the rare session on capitol hill in an effort to broker a deal. lawmakers tried to block cost-cutting measures that many blame for slower mail delivery, which some say could even put the election in jeopardy. nbc news white house correspondent kelly o'donnell has more. >> reporter: protesters across the country demand action to protect the postal service from delays and to secure mail-in ballots. house speaker nancy pelosi delivered her own message about president trump. >> good afternoon. don't pay any attention to what the president is saying because it is all designed to suppress the vote. >> reporter: the speaker called congress back from august recess to pass a measure that halts changes to postal service operations and adds another $25 billion, but it's headed nowhere. the white house already threatened a veto. >> this bill on the floor today is more of a partisan bill than it is a real attempt at solving the

let's bring in nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett. this postal service controversy from the start. what do we know, geoff, about these new machines that were found? >> craig, great to see you. i'll start with a bit of context. as you rightly point out, the postmaster general has now twice on the record under oath said he will not restore these high-volume mail sorting machines that have been removed. he was asked why and he said because they are not needed. in fairness, according to my reporting, in some cases he's right. ive e' talked to postal workers who say, in my shop we have excess capacity, we don't need these machines, but in most places he is wrong. so we now know that in at least two postal facilities, bun in dallas, which you see there the picture on the side of your screen and another in tacoma, washington, postal workers with permission from local officials have tried on their own to restore and reinstall these machines. the picture you're looking at is of a machine -- not that one. that's iowa. but the other picture you w

geoff bennett joins me now. i guess a little bit of political pressure goes a long ways these days. >> political pressure and pressure from the american people. remember, the concerns about the delays at the u.s. postal service extended beyond those ballots. it was retirees who had been waiting for their checks. small business owners who had already been slammed by the pandemic. who were doubly slammed by these shipment delays and u.s. veterans who normally had to wait three or four days typically for medication to come through the mail from the va who were waiting three to four weeks. so now postmaster general -- a senate hearing on friday and a house hearing on monday is doing the thing that i've heard from postal workers that had been calling on him to do. reverse those policy changes. reverse those budget cuts and crackdowns that led to those dela delays. he's putting on pause those changes until after the election, chuck. >> that's certainly called letting some steam out of the valve and making both of the -

joining me now my nbc news geoff bennett, the one tasked with following every angle of the postal servicetory for us. leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill, and chipeter baker, chief political analyst for "the new york times." geoff, these letters to state, now it turns out, basically looks like almost every state got one. "the post" has it at 46. we're surprised that wisconsin for some reason has not gotten one, for instance. and now we're learning about this decision to get rid of these mail sorting machines. what more are we learning today from the purview of the postal service? >> i can tell you based on my conversations with postal workers, union reps, and postal officials, to the point you made at the opening of the show, chuck, you're right, this is not a capacity issue. mail is down some 30%. as you mentioned, the post office handles some 50 million pieces of mail a day. there were some 140 million americans who voted back in 2016. so it's not an issue of capacity. it has to do with the delays that have been caused by the policy changes put in place by the new postmaster general.

let's bring in nbc news correspondent geoff bennett. i'll pose those questions to you. practical, political, and what does it mean? >> well, look, here's the thing that people should know. the postal service, katy, had been strapped for cash well before this pandemic struck. owing largely to the way that the postal service is structured, the fact that it doesn't get any taxpayer money, and also, its pension funding requirements. and of course, the pandemic has complicated all of those financial and staffing strains. i'm told that over the last five to six months, you had some 40,000 letter carriers who have been quarantined. two weeks at home, off the job. and there are now delays in service. about a two-day delay for regular mail. the are even delays for express mail. that's leading to questions about whether or not the postal service is up to the job. can they handle the expected surge in mail-in ballots come november? the postal service put out a statement last week, and they said yes, we have the capacity to handle ballots. i was skeptical of that, so i reached out

joining us now is nbc's white house correspondent geoff bennett who has reported extensively on mail-in ballots. a lot of developments in the past couple of days. dejoy has said that he will stop doing whatever it is that people are upset that he's doing. but that doesn't -- that doesn't sort of indicate a commitment to returning to service levels which is what democrats in the house want. they want a return to the same levels that the postal service was operating at on january 1st of this year. >> right, ali. and the post master general is not even admitting that there's a problem. and that exchange you just showed there with senator gary peters, when peters was asking about cuts to overtime, you heard dejoy say flatly, no. and that didn't square with any of the reporting that i've been doing. it didn't square with the conversation ives had with postal employ knees new yor postal employees in new york, long island, and other places. i heard from one postal worker and he said, yes, it's true he has mandated that trucks leave on time. but because of the cuts to overtime, in many cases th

on fraud charges former top white house aide steve bannon is vowing to fight them here's nbc's geoff bennett with what he's saying. >> reporter: steve bannon, president trump's now indicted former chief strategist, today dismissing his thursday arrest on federal fraud charges as politically motivated.>> the fiasco about american sovereignty and wants to talk about the wall. >> reporter: out on $5 million bail and back on his podcast today. >> i'm not going to back up one inch all these charges are nonsense, it's a political hit job. i really appreciate the overwhelming support. >> reporter: bannon arrested aboard a $28 million yacht owned by a chinese billionaire. prosecutors say bannon and three others raised more than $25 enrely to build sections of the southern border wall >> i saw a note come through that said we might have an opportunity to sponsor the various steel pillars that will be used in the fence. i think the sponsorship was $1,000 apiece and i'd personally be interested in about 14 of those for my family. >> reporter: but the government says the defendants actually defrauded hu

. >> geoff bennett, you're knee deep in the postal service story now. i guess the question is, number one, is the post master general going to show up for congressional hearings, and number two, we've heard over the weekend that certain things are now at least temporary halt is being put to, supposedly dismantling sorting machines, removi removing the blue bins. what have you learned over the weekend? >> yeah, as a result of push back from the american people as relates to removal of blue post office drop boxes, the postal service says they're putting a pause on removals for at least 90 days, which would carry us through the election. to the other point about the money and state of play here, we should repeat this over and over again because the president has said the opposite. but the postal service and postal workers say that the organization has the capacity to handle election day mail, mail in ballots, even without a cash infusion from congress. what's causing the delay are the changes, the cutbacks, the crackdowns put in place by the trump mega don

my colleague geoff bennett at nbc news is representing part of the group that will be in the room son that and the president's movements of the white house when he travels to pennsylvania a little later today. that is very intentional because the president is planning to take his counter programming efforts up a notch. he's headed to lakawanna county in an area that used to give democrats victories ahead of the speech for joe biden tonight. dasha burns is in scranton talking with voters. what have you heard they want to rear from both candidates? >> reporter: halle, people here want solutions. the folks i've been talking to they are struggling and they are frustrated and how that impacts their vote here is critical. what happened here in 2016 halle was a big surprise. hillary clinton did win lackawanaa county by 3%. to put that into context, barack obama won here in 2008 by 62% so this was a big coup for republicans. can they improve on that number in november or will democrats be able to rest tell back. there are plenty of voters here that voted for obama twice and then went for tru

mike memoli, our man in wilmington, and of course to kristen welker and geoff bennett as well. we want to bring in washington governor and former democratic presidential candidate jay inslee, joining us now. governor, thank you very much, thanks for waiting. >> thank you. >> i want to talk about mail-in voting. this is something your state has had in place at least since 2005. you expanded it in 2011. it's worked smoothly. tell us the problem that you may have anticipated, although you had time to work it out, work the rough edges out. is there enough time with just two months, with congress still not funding any additional money for the states? >> if we have a functioning postal service, we'll be great. i have to tell you, the only thing we love more than mail-in ballots is maybe the seattle seahaw seahawks. republicans, democrats, independents, we've embraced it. we consider it almost a constitutional right, and it is. you can vote from the comfort of your home. we've had infinitesimal difficulties of any nature with it. that's why republicans and democrats are strenuously su

. >> i now want to bring in nbc news correspondent geoff bennett because you have been looking into what's going on in pennsylvania. some of the concerns there. what can you tell us? >> yeah, and chris, look, it's not just pennsylvania. it's not just michigan. those two key battleground states that have received the warnings from the postal service. our reporting now indicates that election officials in maine, in north carolina, minnesota, arizona, california, and texas have all been warned that their deadlines really are too tight for voter in those states to request ballots, mail them in, and have them processed. the deadlines are too tight given the delays you and the previous guest just talked about. the postal service says it has the capacity, it has the volume to handle the expected surge in mail-in ballots. that's a different issue, though, than the delays that have been caused by the new policies, the new budget cuts put in place by the new post master general. in most places that has led to a two to three-day delay in first clasmail, in pennsylvania and philadelphia, there are rep

joining me now is geoff bennett, our nbc news white house correspondent. and tim alberta, politico magazine chief political correspondent. boys -- gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me. geoff, the rnc last night did paint an alternate reality. how is the white house responding to the criticism that they not only violated norms and potentially the law, the hatch act, but that they just weren't honest about the state of the country, that larry kudlow wasn't honest about where we are in this pandemic. >> katy, i'll start with the first part of your question and talk about the hatch act, because you're right. the president has obliterated the line that his predecessors have observed between conducting official campaign business and official white house business on white house grounds. previous presidents, many of them, at least, tried to convey to the american people their policy decisions, their political approach, wasn't informed by them trying to do what was best for their own political standing but by them trying to do what was best for the country. p

nbc news correspondent geoff bennett joins us with more on this breaking news.ars repeating, this is the removal of 671 mail sorting machines. what on earth for? >> reporter: i'll tell you what, according to that document i obtained this stretches from coast to coast. it breaks out by region and city and state where all of these machines are coming from. the postal service circulating this document back in june. they say this is normal business procedure. these machines are being removed and reallocated. based on my reporting we only have reports of these machines being removed. we have no reports of the machines being reallocated. in speaking with post office officials, it's almost become a call and response. you ask about why have there been cutting to overtime. why have there been staffing cuts. it's an issue of effectiveness. why are they charging states to send more ballots. why are that removing high volume processing machines which are what they sound like. it's what they do. it's a matter of effectiveness and fishts efficiency. we heard from one veteran

changes to mail service until after the election but concerns over mail-in voting still remain geoff bennett joins us with more >> reporter: good morning. after public outrage, postmaster general louis dejoy now says he's putting on hold some of his policy changes that have caused service slowdowns and raised fears that he was hindering the agency's ability to handle voting by mail his announcement coming the same day that president trump continued to falsely claim that mail-in voting leads to fraud. president trump's week-long campaign tour in battleground states stopping in yuma. encouraging voters to vote in person despite the pandemic. >> november 3rd is one of the biggest dates in your life, in many cases it's the most important date of your life. >> reporter: ahead of his visit, president trump again attacking universal mail-in voting where some states proactively send mail-in ballots to all registered voters. for the first time, the president floating the false notion that fraud will lead to an election do-over which cannot happen >> universal is going to be a disaster the likes of wh

nbc white house correspondent geoff bennett and nbc's heidi przybyla on capitol hill. geoff, you've been following the ins and outs of this for weeks now. what will the important bottom lines from this hearing today be? >> reporter: andrea, i think it was important and instructive for lawmakers to get mr. dejoy on the record talking about his policy changes, his cutbacks, his crackdowns, and his motivation for those changes. among the important takeaways, he said he's extremely confident, extremely highly confident, he said, that even mail-in bolts sent close to the election will be delivered on time. in an exchange with senator mitt romney he said, we will scour each plant each night leading up to election day. but in an earlier exchange he said it's important for people to request those ballots early and send them back early. but in an interaction with senator gary peters he disputed, dejoy did, that he has implemented cuts or curtailed overtime, which tonight add up with the reporting i've done. i've talked to employees who said the cuts to overtime have changed the

i would like to get your reaction from geoff bennett asking the president of the now growing number ofassoc a associates. >> what does it say of your judgment? >> if you look at all the scandal they had, they had tremendous and lawless. i was not involve inside the project and i had no idea who it was. >> great law of 10 numbers of the obama administration. spying on our campaign illegally. i believe the reason was related to russia efforts to try to ornate with the trump's campaign which based on the senate intelligence committee that just came out actually happened. they're not being vofred with the project, he actually did now point that seems to be flat out untrue. before we get you goes, is there a largely concerned of what self-esteem abandon may do for cro prosecutor later. >> very good. it often happens. fs the government seems to have overwhelming evidence of your guilt. >> if you have information of the president or the others or it is in your best interest to give that to the government and returns to some consideration. when the gofrt speavernment see cooperation, it is not