well, with me, journalist michael goldfarb is in philadelphia in the key swing state of pennsylvania,nwen maddox in london, director of the institute of government, and here in the studio, the bbc‘s world affairs editor, john simpson. thank you all forjoining me on this crucial weekend. well, the politics of every presidential election are divisive. in 1800, john adams accused thomas jefferson of fathering a child with one of his slave staff members. and jefferson responded by accusing adams of being in league with the english — of being a traitor, effectively. perhaps nothing quite so egregious has been said this time, but america has rarely been so deeply divided. between liberal america and conservative america, no bridge seems possible at the moment. the last two sessions of congress have been among the most partisan in the history of the american republic. in a system in which power is staggered and consensus is needed for any progress, politics appears to be quite broken. beginning in philadelphia, michael goldfarb, you are in the city in which, in 1787, where the consitutional

but at some point to get some results from pennsylvania we do have our team on the ground in philadelphia michael tracking all of the latest developments for us there sumi of course along with the nailbiting you have been collective groans that the american president is showing his hand as shall we say an ungraceful loser how's donald trump doing today . well michael has not given any indication that he's going to back down his team says they will continue to fight until the whistle blows what isn't clear is what president trumpet perceived as the whistle blowing for him on twitter this morning we've seen the president again spreading unsubstantiated claims self illegal voting of voter fraud and we don't need to talk about the exact words here all you need to know is that the claims have remained the same in the fall so it's have remained the same now beyond twitter we haven't seen the president in person since thursday when he spoke at the white house and his campaign has remained relatively quiet they are pinning their hopes on legal challenges in these battleground states trying to get vote co

let's turn now to former philadelphia mayor michael nutter, a democrat. seems to be some confusion over what's happening in philadelphia right now. do you know if mail-in ballot votes are being counted or have those votes been halted? >> craig, i'm not aware of any halting of any activity here. and there's no reason to have any halting, that i'm aware of. you know, this is, as your previous -- as your correspondent talked about just a second ago, this is a normal part of the process. i mean, we obviously have, you know, a huge amount of mail-in ballots because we're in a pandemic. but other than that, all of this lawsuit activity, all these filings, this is nothing but what i've called flailing by donald trump. suddenly, you know, he's been talking about we have an election, we have an election. i've never heard of a candidate all across the country now trying to stop the counting of ballots. people voted. their vote deserves to be counted. this is how america operates. this is not, as one said, you know, belarus or russia. this is america. this is what w

i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. so-called black friday which i always thought was the day when retailers historically moved from the red to black, from deficit to profitability. there's another exchangeplanati originated here in philadelphia in 1951 police used the term to refer to heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic amidst a pandemic, nothing could seem like a more dated prospect than the

i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. yesterday was so-called black friday which i always thought was the day when retailers historically moved from the red to black, from deficit to profitability. there's another exchangeplanati originated here in philadelphia in 1951 police used the term to refer to heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic amidst a pandemic, nothing could seem like a more dated prospect than the protefitability of store fronts. spreading covid-19 includes, quote, going shopping in stores just before or after thanksgiving. no wonder then, those businesses which thrive these days are online. for black friday alone, preliminary data from adobe analytics put yesterday's online sales on price to amount to 8.9 billion and 9.6 billion, that would be an increase between the 20% and 29% from last year. amazon is not the only retailer benefitting from an online boom. the national retail federation expects that sales from online and other nonstores will increase between 20% and 30%. between 202 billion to 218 billio

i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia.ect joe biden is sworn in on january 20, which will pose a bigger challenge to accomplishing his agenda? will it be mitch mcconnell, the notoriously obstructionist senate majority leader or the more progressive wing of biden's own party? think bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, and the squad. in the absence of an anticipated blue wave in both the senate and house, several more moderate democrats have been blaming the extremism of certain party meat mates, among them virginia congresswoman abigail spam bebe spanberger spoke bluntly on a post election democratic caucus call. >> we need to not ever use the word socialist or socialism ever again. we are classifying tuesday as a success, we will get torn apart in 2022.

>>> will he ever concedy i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. nobody should be surprised by the tactics of the trump campaign in contesting the results. the president clearly had this in mind months ago. here he is in pennsylvania back in september. >> i don't want to end up in the supreme court and i don't want to go back to congress, either. even though we have an advantage if we go back to congress. does everyone understand that? i think it's 26 to 22, because it's counted one vote per state. >> the last point about congress is sometimes the subject of confusion. yes, democrats control the house of representatives. but under the 12th amendment, every state delegation gets just one vote in the house of representatives. and of the 50 state delegations, 26 are controlled by republicans. so that's his play. to get state legislatures, and then the republican congress to supplant the will of the people. it's extremely doubtful we ever get that far. there's no indication the president's efforts to gum up the works by getting alternative electors sla

. >>> will he ever concedy i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia.actics of the trump campaign in contesting the results. the president clearly had this in mind months ago. here he is in pennsylvania back in september. >> i don't want to end up in the supreme court and i don't want to go back to congress, either. even though we have an advantage if we go back to congress. does everyone understand that? i think it's 26 to 22, because it's counted one vote per state. >> the last point about congress is sometimes the subject of confusion. yes, democrats control the house of representatives. but under the 12th amendment, every state delegation gets just one vote in the house of representatives. and of the 50 state delegations, 26 are controlled by republicans. so that's his

michael rubin was getting ready for the biggest basketball game in philadelphia in years when his phones the news he had been hoping for. the pennsylvania supreme court ruled philly's new favorite son should be released on bail. >> the first thing that went through my mind is meek is gonna wanna be at game five for the philadelphia 76ers to close out the series against the miami heat. >> you want him at the -- at the game here at 8:00? >> i knew he'd want to be here. i knew our players would want him here. i knew the city would want him here. >> as soon as the order gets entered, he'll be out within an hour. so everyone is still hopeful that he's making the game tonight. >> reporter: at rubin's office it was a flurry of activity. he allowed our cameras to film it all. >> do you guys understand this is literally the closeout game? day five. meek mill -- >> is it going to be a special day in philadelphia? >> reporter: to get to the prison, rubin had something special in mind for his friend. tell me about the helicopter. >> meek told me that in prison he kept having this dream that i came

it has not been called yet, but mp macro, sitting in philadelphia, does it feel possible that these divides can be healed? —— mp macro. michael they can't. joe biden made two previous bids and failed miserably, but he is the emollient figure that the country needs, and when bronwen was talking about covid, she is right, because when donald trump is the leader will not acknowledge the dangers of covid, his followers, and they are followers, will not acknowledge it either. with a new president, that might change. the divisions in america have been stoked since the civil rights era, primarily by the republican party who peeled away the southern democratic vote by appealing frankly to their racist instincts and have built their own coalition on the idea that people don't need this, they don't need that, the government should step back and taxes should be cut. when you add in partisan media, which has been unbridled since the late 80s, you have tens of millions more than that, actually, about 45% of the country has a set of information that they believe, they believe, and we have to use that term, and the other 55% of the term don

rehema ellis in philadelphia, thank you so much. let's bring in michael schmidt, msnbc contributor. his book "trump versus the united states" deals with the themes playing out in washington this week. robert costa is with us, moderator of washington we"wash on pbs. what's happening in philadelphia encapsulates what's going on in the country. the rally, the celebration side, the biden supporters who were there because of the importance of pennsylvania and having every vote count. on the other side are some trump supporters who wanted the vote count stopped. now, she also had some reporting there right at the end that it was not lost on the people of pennsylvania that all those legal challenges, be it part of trump's political strategy or legitimate question seems a unknown at this point that none of them were founded and this is a state that stakes pride in their election systems and their elected officials and it seems a rare instance where there was a guardrail on donald trump in the form of local election officials, a competent secretary of state and a competent state attorney gen

philadelphia this morning. good morning, eva. >> reporter: good morning, michael. i just want to show you the line here, it is already starting to wind around and stretch. people got here early. the earliest person in line was here an hour before the polling location opened at 7:00 a.m. telling us with everything going on, he just didn't want to risk it. we are expecting to see lines today. a lot of voters telling me they are voting in person to make sure their vote is counted. the state for the first time offering mail-in early voting to anyone in the state but confusion and concerns surrounding those ballots pushing people of both parties to hit the line on election day. now, we've seen both campaigns really double down here in the final days. both candidates here yesterday. biden expected back in p.a. again today. this state viewed as critical for both candidates. its 20 electoral votes could tip the race. trump narrowly won in 2016 and it's expected to be close here again this year. and trump has repeatedly said bad things happen in philadelphia baselessly tryi

you're looking live at philadelphia, millions of votes still being counted across the country right now on this very busy wednesday morning after a long election night. >> and, michael, as votes are counted new results coming in. we'll take a look. starting with the state of wisconsin, you see that right there. joe biden is now opened up about a 20,000-vote lead over donald trump in the state of wisconsin. that's about double what it was just an hour ago. in michigan he's been behind, joe biden behind all night long but whittling away at the lead. one thing we're seeing only 27,000 votes behind donald trump in the state of michigan. it was double that about an hour ago. let's take a look at pennsylvania. as we see the results coming in from pennsylvania as well, still a lot of votes out there in pennsylvania, donald trump has an 11-point lead in the state of pennsylvania. but there's a lot of vote yet to be counted in that state and want to bring in the attorney general of that state josh shapiro joining us, i believe from philadelphia. josh, thank you for joining us this morning. if you're not in philadelphia, i apologize for that. tell us where things are with the

philadelphia. i just interpolated that. biden needs 58% of those votes to take the lead in pennsylvania. up on thisoming program, michaeland & co. chairman. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> patience is the real key here. the market wants to see something that is orderly. >> the biggest downside risk is that we get divided government and gridlock. >> the longer the uncertainty, the more the stimulus talk is going to be delayed, people are going to be worried. >> the economy is slowing to noticeably below the consensus expectation. >> it is going to get worse before it gets better. a lot of regions may see double-dips. >> this is "bloomberg surveillance" with tom keene, jonathan ferro, and lisa abramowicz. tom:

look at how this is impacting sports apparel sales, and more, michael rubin, executive chairman of fanatics and partner of the philadelphiaray of things that you oversee at your company, michael it's good to see you, happy thanksgiving hope you had a good one. some of your properties are probably done really well during the pandemic, things like sports, other things probably not as well, so it's been kind of the best and the worst of worlds for you >> you know, the ecommerce business across both fanatics and rue lala have been very strong this is a very different season. we think about black friday, cyber monday as the days that make the season. it's about the cyber month when i look at november for fanatics, up more than 25% rue gilt strong sales. it's not concentrated on black friday and cyber monday as it has in the past. sales overall, ecommerce, taking a big step function up >>. >> some of the numbers are just mind boggling for online i guess we shouldn't be surprised. i was surprised that the 52 it% lower brick and mortar operations, michael, because i drove past a mall, and they were not quite what you would see no

michael sure has more from the keystone state tonight. how you feel right now. >>in the end it came down to philadelphia. the city where the declaration of independence was drafted by the likes of jefferson and franklin push joe biden and kamala harris over the electoral threshold and philadelphians to the streets some even carrying the document. >>250 years ago some great man recognize that people have certain unalienable rights and that the power lines of the people not with things and tyrants you know the voice and that's what our democracy is all about the president's team, however is challenging the victory with some legal action of their own trump legal adviser rudy giuliani was in philadelphia today questioning the absentee ballot count. the people of this city people this country have no. >>assurance at all. that those ballots were actually cast. there would have to have been almost unanimously cast for joe biden in order to catch so on the streets of philadelphia agree and say they aren't ready to concede not now or ever unknown ever be a because there's too much evidence of fraud. but back in i

philadelphia's independence national historic park to learn about congress hall. the meeting place in the u.s. house and senate between 1790 and 1800. our guide is park ranger michael ifill. for >> we are standing in the house of representatives call congress how and was originally -- most of the history that is when it was but in the years that the city of washington, d.c. is being built, philadelphia serves as our temporary u.s. capital. this room serves for the house of representatives. the second floor of the building that we will see in a moment if the united states senate. the house of representatives each representative at that point in our history represented 30,000 people. we had a population in our first sense of about three and three quarters million. we had 106 members of the house would sit in this room and then eventually from 16 states. and the story of philadelphia as the u.s. capital is a story where we are taking a new constitution and actually operating it. doing things like adding new states to the original 13. the bill of rights would become a part of our constitution while philadelphia was a capital. in fact the secretary of state, thomas jeff

celebrations were also big in philadelphia that's the city that clinched the presidency for biden but supporters of the president were also they're challenging the vote count. michaelof brotherly love. how you feel right now. >>in the end it came down to philadelphia. the city where the declaration of independence was drafted by the likes of jefferson and franklin push joe biden and kamala harris over the electoral threshold and philadelphians to the streets some even carrying the document. >>250 years ago, some great men recognize that people have certain unalienable rights and that the power lines of the people not with things and tyrants you know the voice and that's what our democracy is all about the president's team, however is challenging the victory with some legal action of their own trump legal adviser rudy giuliani was in philadelphia today questioning the absentee ballot count. the people of this city people this country have no. >>assurance at all. that those ballots were actually cast that would have to have been almost unanimously cast for joe biden in order to catch so on the streets of philadelphia agree and say they aren't ready to concede not now

philadelphia four seasons total landscaping, next to the crematorium and adult book store. another lawyer on this dream team is sidney powell, who's been defending trump national security adviser michael flynn in court, by arguing that he was the victim of a deep state conspiracy. powell told fox news this weekend that donald trump is also the victim of a vast conspiracy that, in fact, donald trump won this election by millions of votes. he said, quote, we have so much evidence, i feel like it's coming in through a fire hose! which is odd, because the trump's legal team filing so far have been marked by their total lack of any evidence at all. on friday alone, nine trump cases in three states were either thrown out or dropped. over the weekend, the trump campaign scrapped most of its major lawsuit in pennsylvania, removing the bulk of the allegations. today, four more cases in four states were dropped. even the president's twitter feed seems to be having some trouble persevering. yesterday he tweeted in all caps -- "i won the election!" today, not even all caps. someone's a little low energy. so, the president's legal strategy's not going well. if he had hoped to overturn the results

michael stumo's daughter samya was the niece of consumer advocate and presidential candidate ralph nader, who had urged the faa to never let the 737 max fly again because of its flawed design. the philadelphiaty council has formally apologized for the 1985 police bombing of the radical, black liberation, anti-police-brutality group move, which killed six adults and five children and destroyed over 60 homes. the city council resolution acknowledges "the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of the move bombing." may 13, the anniversary of the massacre, will be established as an annual day of "observation, reflection and recommitment." and activist and former professional football player colin kaepernick has come out in support of freeing renowned political prisoner and journalist mumia abu-jamal. he posted this video online. who haslitical prisoner since the age of 14 dedicated his life to fighting against racism, continues to be caged and lives his life on a slow death row. we are the midst of a movement that says black lives matter. if that is truly the case, then it means his life and legacy must matter. amy: and the national book award for non-fiction has been awarded

. >> well, i hope president trump is listening to you, michael, because he keeps repeating and zeroing in on pennsylvania as well as philadelphiaosing message. one of his closing messages, the specter of physical danger, if vote counting continues after today. contrasted with joe biden's closing message last night. let's listen to that. >> so many people are worried. i've never forgotten growing up in a hard-working family in scranton. the lesson that donald trump has never learned, because he can only see the world from park avenue. he can't see what families like yours and mine have gone through. so he refuses to do the work to get this virus under control. >> interesting contrast. >> well, vice president biden's message has been for several months now that the president should be judged first and foremost on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and now finally in the last hours of voting, that remains at the top of most americans' minds, despite all of these other issues thrown out in the closing days of the campaign. we talked about the closing messages, biden is continuing to campaign through half the day and look at

philadelphia now because ballots are being counted right now. but it's going to be a few more days before we know the results for the state of pennsylvania reporter michael shoar explains why. >>election day in philadelphia began with ballot counting at 07:00am but that ballot counting won't end today. the u.s. supreme court upheld the ruling of the pennsylvania supreme court that the state can count ballots received after election day meaning there likely won't be results here until at least friday. donald trump won the keystone state by a mere 44,000 votes in 2016 and has visited the state several times in the run-up to election day. >>on november, 3rd we're going to win pennsylvania in philadelphia long a democratic stronghold, the mood has put anxious free pizzas were delivered to the polls today at city hall as voters voted in person or dropped absentee ballots and drop boxes near the poles. >>voters here though do feel the extra attention on their state feel like it's really incumbent on us to make a difference here >>show out make our voices heard with all of the attention that pennsylvania has been getting i mean my cell phone has been blowing up

michael? >> well, you are right. just as i was extolling the compromise, that is what came out of the constitutional convention in the city of philadelphia will be hearing about later on today, and it led to this thing which is basically was intended to buffer the presidency from big changes in american public opinion. the way that the founders felt, they didn't want a majority of the americans voting a president into office or out of office. they wanted the state legislators and they wanted the elites to do that, and interestingly, a lot of support has remained for the electoral college, and at least in the past, more than one occasion, joe biden was asked as a senator whether he supported abolition of the electoral college, and he said that he was inclined against it, and i am not sure how he feels this morning. >> well, it is interesting that i just got a text from someone who said can i go to curl up behind michael beschloss' fire. a lot of americans are seeking reassurance that this is how democracy works and that we are of course united. i am sure that you can think of time in our history where we have seemed more divided and the c

philadelphia with the state of the race there. good morning, >>. >>> we'll turn to wisconsin, where they have been counting ballots all day and all night. deborah roberts is there with an update. >> reporter: good morning, michael. what a night for election workers, wisconsin's certainly living up to its name as a battleground state, this morning this race also remains too close to call, joe biden and president trump literally battling it out for the 10 electoral votes here, the big delay the avalanche of mail-in and absentee ballots, something that folks have never seen here, 60% of the folks in this area chose not to come in person, mostly because there's a raging coronavirus epidemic here so it put a lot of pressure on these workers here. state election officials say they took great pains to make sure they handled these ballots carefully, even they're going to triple-check the results. one of the problem is, election workers weren't allowed to start counting those ballots until 7:00 a.m. yesterday, so they were up against it to deliver them in timely fashion. by night fall this race was supertight. the state trump claimed four years ago, now biden seems to be leading by that same amount. biden a little close

michael, great to see you. laura, thank you. >>> now, i'll tell you something very interesting here as we go into break. we are waiting for pennsylvania to deliver votes from the all-important philadelphia that has been hitting so hard for democrats. i know so many are watching. and we're watching because it matters. this is not about the "them" of politicians, it's about the "us" of our democracy. we'll be right back. at dell technologies, 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. ♪ because at dell technologies, you're having one more bite! no! one more bite! ♪ kraft. for the win win. i feel like we're forglet me check.ing. xfinity home gives you peace of mind from anywhere with professionally monitored home security built around you. no, i think we're good. good. so when you're away, you don't have to worry. the tent. we forgot... the tent. except about that. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome. hey look, i found the tent! get xfinity home with