phil rucker, robert costa, garrett haake, kimberly atkins and charlie sikes. and we are going to continue with what is a really frenzied pace here on the campaign trail. we are in georgia where we're going to hear from joe biden a little bit later on today. his closing argument in this race. but next, i do want to toss it to my colleague chuck todd who has "meet the press daily" on the other side of the break. andrea mitchell will be back after a quick break. ♪ [sfx: typing sound] ♪ [sfx: typing sound] ♪ [sfx: typing sound] ♪ [sfx: typing sound] we started by making the cloud easier to manage. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪ becauseand sweetie canlogies, coloryou just be...ng. gentle with the pens. okey. okey. i know. gentle..gentle new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indee

phil rucker, mara gay, dr. nahid bhadelia. greatly appreciate it. coming up, the president returns to what is in effect a coronavirus hot spot. known elsewhere as the people's house. where there is great unease among those few remaining on the job during an outbreak of coronavirus. we'll ask two political veterans about the fallout from this medical drama there. >>> and later, the president tells americans further not to fear covid-19. he's telling us to get back out there and open society back up. we'll run that notion past a noted infectious disease expert. all of it as "the 11th hour" is just getting under way on this back to work monday night. day n. robinhood believes now is the time to do money. without the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. a livcustomizeper iquickbooks for me. okay, you're all set up. thanks! that was my business gi, this one's casual. get set up right with a live bookkeeper wit

phil rucker, to begin with your beat over at the white house, we have a short list of the people andnstitutions the president has attacked, i was going to say in the past couple of days. most of these are just in the past couple of hours. they run the gamut from fauci to the supreme court to obviously joe and hunter biden, lesley stahl, our own colleague and friend kristen welker, hillary clinton, who was mentioned at tonight's rally. phil, is this a strategy? in 2016, this president got elected in part listing the grievances of the people. as he put it, the forgotten men and women. this time around it seems like donald trump's grievances, like he is painting himself as the forgotten man. >> brian, that's such an excellent point, and, you know, we should keep in mind that one of the keys to trump's victory in 2016 was that in the final weeks of that campaign, he had a disciplined, methodical message. sure, there was a lot of drama, sure there were a lot of distractions and tweets and whatnot, but at each rally he came out with a very clear message about the forgotten men and women th

phil rucker, coauthor along with his colleague at the post carol leonnig of the long time best-seller "a very stable genius" about you know who. and his colleague, eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist also at the "washington post". good evening and welcome to you all. erin, you get to go first with this question, perhaps unanswerable. do you think any minds, any votes were changed at the end of tonight for those lucky few americans who have two flat screens hanging on the wall in their den? >> well, brian, that is an open question. and i certainly have whiplash from trying to keep up with tonight's dueling town halls. look, this was supposed to be a town hall with both then on the stage and that is disappointing that didn't happen because the voters being able to engage with these candidates is really a different dynamic, and we saw their two very contrasting styles and messages on full display tonight. it's really just too bad voters didn't get to see that with them sharing a stage. there are maybe a slither of undecided voters right now. i think really the undecided iss

phil rucker and carol, i want to start with both of you. phil, what do we know about how frequently the president is in contact with his staff. how recent are the most recent updates that his symptoms remain mild? >> well, nicolle, we don't have any update beyond what mark meadows told reporters several hours ago this morning about the president's mild symptoms. our reporting shows that the president has been in touch with some staffers, some advisers and friends this morning by phone. i'm not sure if he has seen any staff in person. certainly a number of his aides reported to work at the white house and are at the white house today. we should point out that it is now 4:00 in the afternoon on friday, and we have notice detailed information about the president's health condition. there has been no public briefing by his doctor. there has been no public briefing by any members of his staff to provide in detail what those symptoms are, what his temperature might be, any development beyond the note we got from his physician overnight that said

phil rucker, we've seen the president talk about going out and doing rallies, talk about how he thinks he's been cured by regeneron. he's been taping videos on the white house lawn telling seniors that they're not vulnerable but they are vulnerable, and that, oh, by the way, he's a senior. what is going on with the president? is this all about his re-election campaign? do they think that it's working? >> katy, literally everything the president does is about his re-election campaign. we're three and a half weeks out from the election. he's looking for a way to change the momentum in this race. and he's itching to get onto the campaign trail. we know he's been complaining to advisers about feeling cooped up at the white house even as he is still being treated for the coronavirus. there is a reason he's cooped up in the white house. and it's his own health. he was only in the hospital a few days ago. and yet he wants to get out on the trail. he wants to try to somehow convince the public that he's entirely healthy and cured now and stronger than ever and vigorous and has the stamina to c

phil rucker, let me start with you. what's the latest on the president's condition? if it's knowable, what's the source of the information? are the doctors doing briefings for you guys? >> there has not been one today to your knowledge. there was some indication from others in the white house we would be hearing from the president's physician later in the day. perhaps we'll get an update on his medical condition. the closest thing we have to any update from the president is a video he put out, another one of these rambling videos from the south lawn or what appears to be the south lawn of the white house where he talks about being cured from the coronavirus and he talks about the experimental drug cocktail that he received at walter reed and how that should be distributed and shared with other people around the country. he made a direct appeal to seniors because polling is showing he's losing the vote of seniors to joe biden. trump announced in that video that he himself is a senior at 74 years old and he cares first and foremost about fellow seniors. >> nick confess

phil rucker, nancy cook, a.b. stoddard, greatly appreciate it. >>> coming up, as someone put it to our own nicolle wallace today, this is your father's 2016. democrats are seeing hope in some unlikely places and the early vote is remarkable. two of the best early strategists in the game are here to talk about key republican strong holds democrats are likely to flip. >>> and in the middle of a surge of coronavirus, no masks, no problem, but we will talk to one of the er doctors on the front lines. all of it as "the 11th hour" is just getting underway on this tuesday night. robinhood believes now is the time to do money. without the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. >>> you know, there aren't a lot of pundits who could have guessed four years ago that the democratic candidate for president in 2020 would be campaigning in georgia on the final week of the election. or th

phil rucker, nancy cook, a.b. stoddard, greatly appreciate it. >>> coming up, as someone put it to our own nicolle wallace today, this is your father's 2016. democrats are seeing hope in some unlikely places and the early vote is remarkable. two of the best early strategists in the game are here to talk about key republican strong holds democrats are likely to flip. >>> and in the middle of a surge of coronavirus, no masks, no problem, but we will talk to one of the er doctors on the front lines. all of it as "the 11th hour" is just getting underway on this tuesday night. 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 say? one more game of backgammon? [ chuckles ] not on your life. [ laughs ] ♪ when the lights go down to s

susan page, phil rucker, victoria de francesco soto.hank you to the three of you for staying up after the week we've all had. >>> coming up james carville sounded the alarm on this broadcast earlier this week. now we're hearing more about it. concerns in and around the biden campaign that -- about places where turnout is soft where they need to be more robust on tuesday, actual election day. >>> and later, first he took on the scientists. now the president is going after the doctors fighting covid on the front lines. remembering that a thousand doctors and nurses have paid with their lives. we'll talk to one er doctor in the hot land who is taking all this personally. he's not alone. "the 11th hour" just getting under way on this friday night. when the pandemic shook our city, scott wiener immediately went to work, making sure families could put food on their tables, defending renters facing eviction, securing unemployment benefits, helping neighborhood businesses survive. scott wiener will never stop working until california emerges fr

phil rucker, pulitzer prizewinning bureau chief for "the washington post." coauthor with carol leonnig of the long time best-seller "a very stable genius." and professor assistant dean at the university of texas at austin. good evening and welcome to all of you. and susan, i'd like to begin with you. as we head into this final weekend even the fox poll showing i guess it could be called a healthy biden lead. for the democrats who fear they've seen this movie before, in your mind how does this differ from 2016? >> well, this has been as you say a very stable lead from the point that joe biden emerged as the presumptive democratic nominee. donald trump has never led in this contest nationwide. and in these battleground states joe biden has a small but persistent lead. if we hadn't gone through the experience in 2016 i think we would be somewhat more confident in saying joe biden seems to be on a very optimistic path through tuesday, a very uphill path for president trump. but we did go through 2016, so i think it behooves us to be a little bit cautious and wai

ken dilanian and phil rucker, thanks for joining us. ken, the u.s.n't spying on giuliani but he was picked up as part of, presumably, intercepts involving this russian asset. >> that's right, andrea. the cia and other intelligence agencies don't spy on americans but they do spy on russian agents overseas. when those people are speaking to americans, as happened in the case of the president's lawyer rudy giuliani, sometimes those americans get picked up on intercepts, become the subject of intelligence reports. and that's what happened here, my sources tell me. the cria and other intelligence agencies became concerned that rudy giuliani was being worked over, as one person put it, by russian intelligence, fed disinformation particularly by andre derkach, a ukrainian parliamentarian who was sanctioned by the u.s. last month. they said he's participating in a scheme right now to interfere in the 2020 election. so giuliani met with derkach december 5. in late december the intelligence community sent a classified report to the white house. "the washington

as phil rucker said, there should be a mask requirement for everybody in the white house and anybody coming in contact with the president and other high ranking officials. but that's a lesson that should be applied to the whole country right now. we have not had a united effort for the united states up until now, and we still have some 40, 45,000 cases a day. this is as we're heading into a potentially difficult flu season and a second wave of covid coming on. so we need to elevate the importance of prevention, mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing, i'll tell you, ali, one thing i learned from my patients is that when a loved one dies, that's a tragedy, but when a loved one dies and that death could have been prevented, that's a tragedy that haunts you forever. that's why prevention is so critically important right now. >> how many of the 210,000 americans who have already died were preventable, in some cases by policy? dr. hamberg, the organization that you head, the head of the fda and cdc both have been politicized and diminished as a result of this president who has large

thank you, phil rucker and dr.lt and newman and others are being targeted by the trump administration after their tell-alls. after william barr's doj makes clear that they will go after anyone who crosses trump. both women join me next. me next. it's hard. eliminate who you are not first, and you're going to find yourself where you need to be. ♪ the race is never over. the journey has no port. the adventure never ends, because we are always on the way. ♪ ♪ introducing the new sleep number 360 smart bed. now temperature balancing, so you can sleep better together. can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. can it help with snoring? i've never heard snoring. exactly. no problem ...and done. so you can really promise better sleep? not promise... prove. save up to $1,000 on the new sleep number 360 smart bed and adjustable base. plus, 0% interest for 24 months on all smart beds. only for a limited time. with new rew

. >> phil rucker, let me bring you in on the politics of this. this matters and we're starting here today because this is the beginning of a story we'll have to cover the next 22 days. there is, as your paper reported, an active russian disinformation op, the white house was warned about it, rudy giuliani is the target of it, is the word that your newspaper used. you have four accomplished national security reporters by lined on the story, which i think four to eight references to sources in here. and they're up to a new operation. it involves emails, a hard drive. talk about how the press is approaching what is now known at the front end of the disinformation campaign as, quote, contaminated by your story. >> yeah. nicole, it's a real challenge for journalism, news organizations to try to figure out what information comes you on of the mouth or the twitter feed of the president of the united states is credible and what may be foreign disinformation that's being spread by america's enemies abroad to try to influence this election so close to the

joining us on that front is our friend, phil rucker, white house bureau chief for "the washington post." thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to ask you about a lot of things that happened today, including the video the president just put out claiming he had discovered a cure for covid and some of these other strange things. just in the last couple of minutes we got late breaking news that the assistant commandant of the marine corps has tested positive for covid. we know he was one of the very senior military leaders who had gone into quarantine after potential exposure. that was announced by the pentagon yesterday. do you have anything to add to that in terms of the reaction inside the white house tonight or how this may fit into the long line of positive cases we've been learning about all week? >> rachel, it's significant and it seems like we're learning every few hours of someone else in this administration who has come down with the coronavirus. it's a scary time to work in the trump administration and i can tell you those i've spoken to over the last seve

lippy roy, phil rucker, thank you. >>> eight days to go. the early vote numbers in some cities have surpassed those of four years ago, leading to turn out projections that could defy expectations. >>> also ahead, trump pulling back the curtain on his revenge list of planned firings of national security and law enforcement officials at the same time that the "washington post" reports no one has benefitted more from trump's presidency than one vladimir putin. >>> and peggy noonan once a trail blazer in her own rite, takes on the trail blazer on the democratic ticket, the politics of laughing while female, all those stories, coming up. s of laughing while female, all those stories, coming up 133 million americans have pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma. this administration and senate republicans want to overturn laws requiring insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. they're rushing a lifetime appointment to the supreme court to change the law through the courts. 70% of americans

phil rucker, looking at this race, so far mark kelly has been ahead in arizona, way ahead of martha mcsallyraditionally red. what are you seeing there and in south carolina? >> what's interesting about the arizona race is mcsally has trailed mark kelly, her democratic senator opponent, by a wider margin than trump has trailed biden in the presidential ballot in that state. we've seen that pattern in some other senate races as well. and so what that tells you, what political strategists in both parties are observing in this final month of the campaign, trump underperforming his own race will have an even greater drag on the senate candidates because they're underwater. what they really need is the president to either win those states or at least put in a respectable performance, only lose by a couple of points and maximize his own turnout so that those voters can in turn vote for those republican senate candidates. but at this hour that doesn't seem to be happening, according to virtually all of the public polling. >> and donna edwards, the surprise of the year so far has been jaime harrison

. >> phil rucker, this was a straight up television production late today and tonight the president, all this flourish entering a white house diminished by, wait for it, the coronavirus. can you shed some light on the decision to leave walter reed and go back to the white house? >> well, brian, our reporting suggests that decision was made by the president. it was something he wanted to do. he was telling allies and advisers earlier today, this morning i have to get out of here. that was the quote the president used. he wanted to be back in the white house. he wanted to try to signal to the american people that he was healthy, he was strong, he was in charge. and when he proposed leaving to be discharged his medical doctors agreed with him and allowed him to do that. they of course are going to be continuing their treatments at the white house, the president is in no way fully healthy or fully recovered according to his krs. nevertheless he got the image he wanted of him walking down those steps, landing in the helicopter and going up to the truman balcony. it's literally a campaign

anna moneymaker, thank you for the work that you're doing and phil rucker, for your excellent reporting. i'm joined by a senior scholar at the johns hopkins center. it's good to talk to you again. let me begin with something that the president has said and it's certainly something a lot of his allies say quite frequently. they compare the coronavirus to the flu. again, it happened today on social media with the president saying we learned to live with the flu just like we are learning to live with covid. that simply is not correct. facebook took the photo down. the president even told bob woodward in his own words that the coronavirus is worse than the flu, but explain to our viewers why the president's comparison is so problematic. >> it's problematic because it's another example of trying to downplay the severity of this pandemic. this is not influenza. this is something much more serious than influenza. even in our worse years, less than half as many people who died of coronavirus died from influenza. we have a vaccine for the flu. we have none of that for covid-19. this is a false a

nbc's mike memoli and "washington post" bureau chief phil rucker. welcome, all. peter, i know you've been up through the night, let's talk about you, the white house team, hallie jackson, of course, all night. tell us about what we heard from mark meadows today and the rest of the white house staff. you have the marine guards, the pilot on marine one, the pilot on air force one, others on the staff, the usher, the wait staff, there are a lot of white house staff and their families who all could be implicated. >> andrea, you're exactly right. it's best to describe this as a constellation of contacts, starting with hope hicks, the president and first lady, and it goes out, the rings of folks they have have interactions with over the last 72 hours, perhaps more than that. let's start with the details about the president and first lady. i'm told they're both experiencing mild symptoms right now. they are in isolation here at the residence behind me. meadows saying that the president is in good spirits right now, an aide telling me it's business as usual, that the pre

i want to bring in phil rucker, bureau chief for "the washington post." let's start with this mixed messaging, at best, over the weekend. we saw the president's physician say one thing. chief of staff mark meadows say another. what is going on? in this clear case, transparency is everything. >> you're absolutely right about transparency, steph. and, obviously, this has been a very chaotic period for the white house with the president hospitalized due to his injury, but the american people are not getting the straight truth and the real story and facts from his doctor or from his political staff, including mark meadows. but it fits a pattern. as you know, steph, this is a president who has been deceptive about his personal health for years now, about, frankly, many personal details, including his tax returns. and he is very loathed to share that sort of information with the public, especially when it brings into question his sort of stamina and physical strength. those are attributes that he likes to tout politically and so any time when he seems vulnerabl

i want to bring in phil rucker, pulitzer prize-winning bureau chief at "the washington post" and dr. kavita pa tele. white house health policy director under president obama. she is also a fellow at the brookings institute. philip, you wrote about the news with mike pence. yes, he has five aides who tested positive, but he is not slowing down. he's going to events, to carol's point. it sounds like no social distancing. not a lot of mask wearing. i know he wants to push this coronavirus in the past, not make it a central focus, but how can you given how big the spread is? >> well, steph, the spread is quite large, including the vice president's chief of staff marc short who was considered a close contact with pence last week. he tested foi eed positive on s afternoon and is self-isolating. also the top political adviser as well as his personal aide and bodyman, someone who spends a lot of time at the side of the vice president. pence was tested saturday and sunday and tested negative. doctors have okayed him to travel saying he's considered essential personal and not subject to the ce

phil rucker is here, and also join us, donna everts, and donna, i want to start with you.emocrats are so anxious, made anxious by coverage of the polls, by acknowledging out loud where the race stands today. some tightening polls in florida and pennsylvania, which is to be expected. but nationally, a nine-point lead in some important key states that trump won last time, sizable leads for joe biden. does that come from a fear of suppressing turnout, or from a democratic distrust of the polls? >> well, it comes -- it's born of experience. all of us experienced the polls heading into november in 2016. and we know what the results were. and we know that it's important to play this game, if you will, all the way through the closing buzzer. i think for democrats, there is a concern that talking about how much joe biden might be ahead could make some voters, especially at the last minute, say, oh, you know, i have something else to do on e"lectin day. and democrats don't want that to happen. we know the danger of this presidency, it's pointed out every day. and the way to win thi